Avoidance is a common compulsive behaviour, and this is where a person with OCD will go to great lengths to avoid the objects, places or person/people that that they feel triggers their OCD.  This will be their way of preventing the distress and anguish, and the hours of rituals they will be compelled to perform.

Examples include those with checking compulsions that may avoid tasks or situations that will increase their sense of responsibility and/or might be unsafe.  A person who had the obsessional thought that they might stab their children went to great lengths to avoid contact with knives, scissors, and other sharp objects.  A person, who feared that they might catch AIDS/HIV, totally avoided certain areas of London which was, in their mind, associated with AIDS/HIV.  In some cases, certain 'unsafe' numbers, letters, or colours are avoided because the person feels that such avoidance is necessary in order to avert some disaster, usually to a loved one.