What is Obsessive Compulsive Disorder?

Obsessive-compulsive disorder, commonly called “OCD”, is a condition typified by obsessions, compulsions, or both, which are time-consuming and cause significant distress or functional impairment.

Obsessions are recurrent, persistent, intrusive, unwanted thoughts, images, or urges that cause anxiety or distress. Common obsessions include thoughts of contamination, physical illness, harm, unwanted sexual or violent content, religiosity/scrupulosity, losing control, or wanting a feeling of something being “just right.” Obsessions frequently involve a feared outcome, such as being responsible for harm to someone/something or being perceived as unethical, immoral, or imperfect. The individual attempts to ignore, stop, suppress, or neutralize obsessions by carrying out compulsions in order to reduce their distress.

Compulsions are repetitive physical behaviors or mental acts that an individual feels driven to perform in response to an obsessive thought or a rigid set of internal rules. Compulsions are typically used to avoid or reduce the feelings of anxiety, disgust, or distress resulting from an obsession or to prevent a feared outcome associated with an obsession and are excessive or not connected in a realistic way to the obsession to which they are responding. Compulsions may also be driven by internal sense of tension and a feeling that a behavior must be carried out in order for it to feel “just right.” Common compulsions include washing/sanitizing, checking, counting and other mental acts, ordering/arranging, confessing, reassurance seeking, touching, tapping, repeating, rewriting, and avoidance or other “safety behaviors”, among many others. The individual feels compelled to engage in these actions, even though they are frequently aware that neither the obsessions, nor compulsions are rational or realistic.