The answer is: compulsions help people control their obsession
Compulsion refers to a situation when a person is forced to do something to avoid emotional distress.
A lot of People who are obsessed with something aware of their obsession but can help themselves from stopping it, which often lead to emotional distress. This is when compulsion can be used to control the obsession.
For example, let's say that a person has an obsession with snacks that make him/her become obese. A compulsion that can be used to control this is by directly eat a lot of vegetables and drink a lot of water every time they have a craving for snacks. This would make them fuller and reduce their craving for unhealthy snakes.
