Neurosis

Etymology

Coined in 1769 by Scottish physician William Cullen from Greek "neuron" (nerve) plus "-osis" (condition), when the disorders were thought to be diseases of the nerves. Freud later recast it as psychological conflict, and though clinicians have retired the term, it lives on in everyday speech.

noun · /nyoo-ROH-sis/
A relatively mild mental disturbance marked by anxiety, obsession, or compulsion, without loss of contact with reality.
What it names
A handle for chronic, self-aware inner distress — the worrier’s and obsessive’s lot, short of a break from reality.
Example
His neurosis about germs had him washing his hands raw.
Related idea
Neurosis keeps you tethered to reality, however anxiously; psychosis is the graver break, involving delusions or hallucinations that reality no longer corrects.