Karen Rusa was a30-year-old woman and the mother of four children. For the past several monthsKaren had been experiencing repetitive thoughts that centered around her

children's safety.She frequently found herself imagining that a serious accident had occurred;shewas unable to put these thoughts out of her mind.On one such occasion she

imagined that herson,Alan,had broken his leg playing football at school. There was no reason tobelieve that an accident had occurred,but she kept thinking about the

possibility untilshe finally called the school to see if Alan was all right. Even afterreceiving their assurance that he had not been hurt,she described herself asbeing

somewhat surprisedwhen he later arrived home unharmed.Karen also noted that her daily routine wasseriously hampered by an extensive series of counting work that she

performed throughouteach day.Specific numbers come to have a special meaning to her;she found thather preoccupation with these numbers was interfering with her ability

to perform everydayactivities.One example was grocery shopping. Karen believed that if sheselected the first item,some dreadful thing would happen to her first child, ifshe

selected the seconditem,some unknown disaster wonld fall on her second child, and so on for thefour children.Karen's preoccupation with numbers extended to other

activities, mostnotable the pattern in which she smoked cigarettes and drank coffee.If she hadone cigarette, she believed that she had to smoke at least four in a row or oneof

her children wouldbe harmed in some way. If she drank one cup of coffee,she felt compelled todrink four. Karen acknowledged the unreasonableness of these

rules,but,nevertheless,maintainedthat she felt more comfortable,when she observed them earnestly.When she wasoccasionally in too great a hurry to observe these rules, she

experiencedconsiderable anxiety in the form of a subjective feeling of dread and fear. Shedescribed herself as tense,uneasy and unable to relax during these periods.What does theword"preoccupation"mean?

A.Love.

B.Hobby.

C.Hate.

D.Obsession.