What is OCD? 

 

Obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) has two main parts: obsessions and compulsions. 

• Obsessions are unwelcome thoughts, images, urges, worries or doubts that repeatedly appear in your mind, which can leave you feeling anxious. 
• Compulsions are repetitive activities that you do to reduce the anxiety caused by the obsession. For example, repeatedly checking a door is locked, repeating a specific phrase in your head or checking how your body feels.  

 

You may find that at times your obsessions and compulsions are manageable, whilst at other times make your day-to-day life really difficult. They may be more severe when you are stressed about other things, like life changes, health, money, work or relationships. 

What’s it like to live with OCD? 

Although many people experience minor obsessions, such as, worrying about leaving the gas hob on, or if the door is locked and compulsions, such as, avoiding the cracks in the pavement, these don’t significantly interfere with daily life, or are short-lived. 

 

Most people have persistent ideas. However, if these ideas or our response to those ideas, results in unhappiness and restricted freedom then some type of therapy treatment may be helpful. 

 

If you experience OCD, it’s likely that your obsessions and compulsions will have a big impact on how you live your life: 

• Disruption to your day-to-day life. Repeating compulsions can take up a lot of time, and you might avoid certain situations that trigger your OCD. Where you’re not able to go to work, see family and friends, eat out or even go outside. Obsessive thoughts can make it hard to concentrate and leave you feeling exhausted. 
• Impact on your relationships as you may feel that you have to hide your OCD from people close to you. 

• You may feel ashamed of your obsessive thoughts, or worry that they can’t be treated. You might want to hide this part of you from other people, and find it hard to be around people or to go outside. This can make you feel isolated and lonely. 
• You may find that your obsessions and compulsions are making you feel anxious and stressed. For example, some people feel that they have to carry out their compulsions so frequently that they have little control over them.  

 

The symptoms of OCD? 

Obsessions 

Obsessions are persistent thoughts, pictures, urges or doubts that appear in your mind repeatedly. They interrupt your thoughts against your control, and can be really frightening, graphic and disturbing. They may make you feel anxious, disgusted or uncomfortable. 

You might feel you can’t share them with others or that there is something wrong with you that you have to hide. You may become upset that you are capable of having such thoughts. 

It’s important to remember that obsessions are not a reflection of your personality; you are unlikely to act on your thoughts. 

 

Types of obsessions 

 

• Worrying you’ve already harmed someone by not being careful enough. For example, that you have knocked someone over in your car. 
• Worrying you’re going to harm someone because you will lose control. For example, that you will push someone in front of a train or stab them. 
• Violent intrusive thoughts or images of yourself doing something violent or abusive. These thoughts might make you worry that you are a dangerous person. 

• Relationship intrusive thoughts often appear as doubts about whether a relationship is right or whether you or your partner’s feelings are strong enough. They might lead you to end your relationship to get rid of the doubt and anxiety. 
• Sexual intrusive thoughts or images. These could be related to children, family members or to sexually aggressive behaviour. You might worry that you could be a paedophile or a rapist, or that you are sexually attracted to someone in your family. 
• Contamination (for example by dirt, germs or faeces). You might worry that you have been contaminated and that you – or other people – are spreading the contamination. You might worry that you have or might get a disease. 
• Mental contamination. You might experience feelings of dirtiness that are triggered by a person who has harmed you in some way. These feelings may also be triggered by your own thoughts, images or memories. 
• You might have a fear that something bad will happen if everything isn’t ‘right’. For example, if things are not clean, in order or symmetrical. 

 

What are compulsions? 

 

Compulsions are repetitive activities that you feel you have to do. The aim of a compulsion is to try and deal with the distress caused by obsessive thoughts. 

You might have to continue doing the compulsion until the anxiety goes away and things feel right again. You might know that it doesn’t make sense to carry out a compulsion but it can still feel too scary not to. 

 

Repeating compulsions is often very time-consuming and the relief they give you doesn’t usually last very long. 

Compulsions can: 

• be physical actions 
• be mental rituals (people who only have mental compulsions sometimes refer to their OCD as Pure O) 

• involve a number, for example, you might feel you have to complete a compulsion a specific number of times without interruption. 

 

Types and examples of compulsions 

Rituals 

• washing your hands, body or things around you a lot 

• touching things in a particular order or at a certain time 
• arranging objects in a particular way 

 

Checking 

• checking doors and windows to make sure they are locked 

• checking your body or clothes for contamination 
• checking your body to see how it responds to intrusive thoughts 
• checking your memory to make sure an intrusive thought didn’t actually happen 
• checking your route to work to make sure you didn’t cause an accident 

 

Correcting thoughts 

• repeating a word, name or phrase in your head or out loud 
• counting to a certain number 
• replacing an intrusive thought with a different image 

Reassurance 

• repeatedly asking other people to tell you that everything is alright. 

Avoidance 

You might find that some activities, objects or experiences make your obsessions or compulsions worse. For example, if you are worried that you might stab someone then you might avoid the kitchen because you know there are knives there. 

Sometimes it might feel easier to avoid situations that mean you have to do a compulsion. For example, if you have to do a long and time-consuming ritual every time you leave the house, you might just decide it’s easier to stay indoors. But avoiding things can have a major impact on your life. 

 

What causes OCD? 

There are different theories about why OCD develops. Some theories suggest that OCD is caused by personal experience. For example: 

• If you’ve had a painful childhood experience, or suffered trauma, abuse or bullying, you might learn to use obsessions and compulsions to cope with anxiety. 
• If your parents had similar anxieties and showed similar kinds of compulsive behaviour, you may have learned OCD behaviours as a coping technique. 
• Ongoing anxiety or stress, or being part of a stressful event like a car accident or starting a new job, could trigger OCD or make it worse. 
• Pregnancy or giving birth can sometimes trigger perinatal OCD.  

 

What can help 

Building your support network by strengthening the relationships around you may help you to feel more able to cope and less lonely. Many people find it hard to talk about OCD and you may worry that people won’t understand. You might have kept your OCD secret for such a long time that it feels very scary to put some of your experiences into words. It may be helpful to write your feelings down and then talk about this together. 

 

Spending more time with friends and family may help you feel more comfortable around them and, in time, you may feel ready to share your experiences. 

 

Manage your stress, as stress and anxiety can make OCD worse.  

Consider trying a relaxation technique or mindfulness and look after your physical health by getting enough sleep, consider your diet. Eating regularly and keeping your blood sugar stable can make a difference to your mood and energy levels. Try to do some physical activity, such as, yoga, swimming or walking which can help improve your mood.  

 

Self help resources  

Take a look in our self help section for information on support groups and other resources to help with OCD.