Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder Fact Sheet
- What is Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder? OCD is an anxiety disorder characterized by recurrent, unwanted thoughts and/or repetitive behaviors.
- In OCD, the brain gets stuck on a particular thought or urge and just can't let go. People with OCD often say the symptoms feel like a case of mental hiccups that won't go away. OCD causes problems in information processing in the brain.
- 1 in 50 adults have OCD, and it occurs in as many as 1 in 200 children and adolescents.
- OCD involves having both obsessions and compulsions. A person with OCD may sometimes have one or the other.
- Common obsessions can include: contamination fears of germs, dirt, imagining having harmed oneself or others, imagining losing control or having aggressive urges, intrusive sexual thoughts or urges, excessive religious or moral doubt, forbidden thoughts, hoarding, a need to have things "just so," and a need to tell, ask or confess.
- Common compulsions can include: washing, repeating, checking, touching and counting.
- OCD symptoms can occur in people of all ages.
- OCD starts at any time from preschool age to adulthood (usually by age 40). One third to one half of adults with OCD report that it started during childhood.
- Unfortunately, OCD often goes unrecognized. On average, people with OCD see three to four doctors and spend nine years seeking treatment before they receive a correct diagnosis. Studies find that it takes an average of 17 years from the time OCD begins for people to obtain appropriate treatment.
- Not all Obsessive-Compulsive behaviors represent an illness. Some rituals (e.g., bedtime songs, religious practices) are a welcome part of daily life. Normal worries, such as contamination fears, may increase during times of stress, such as when someone in the family is sick or dying. Only when symptoms persist, make no sense, cause much distress, or interfere with functioning do they need clinical attention.
- Before the arrival of modern medications and cognitive behavior therapy, OCD was generally thought to be untreatable. Most people with OCD continued to suffer, despite years of ineffective psychotherapy. Today, treatment can help most people with OCD. Although OCD is usually completely curable only in some individuals, most people achieve meaningful and long-term symptom relief with comprehensive treatment.
Obsessions
Obsessions are thoughts, images, or impulses that occur over and over again and feel out of your control. The person does not want to have these ideas because they are disturbing and intrusive, and usually recognizes that they don't really make sense. People with OCD worry excessively about dirt and germs and become obsessed with the idea that they are contaminated or contaminate others. They may have obsessive fears of having inadvertently harmed someone else even though they usually know this is not realistic. Obsessions are accompanied by uncomfortable feelings, such as fear, disgust, doubt, or a sensation that things have to be done in a way that is "just so."
Compulsions
People with OCD try to make their obsessions go away by performing compulsions. Compulsions are acts the person performs over and over again, often according to certain "rules." People with an obsession about contamination may wash constantly to the point that their hands become raw and inflamed. A person may repeatedly check that he/she has turned off the stove or iron because of an obsessive fear of burning the house down. He/she may have to count certain objects over and over because of an obsession about losing them. Unlike compulsive drinking or gambling, OCD compulsions do not give the person pleasure. Rather, the rituals are performed to obtain relief from the discomfort caused by the obsessions.
Other features of Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder
OCD symptoms cause distress, take up time (more than an hour a day), or significantly interfere with the person's work, social life or relationships. Most individuals with OCD recognize that their obsessions are coming from their own minds and are not just excessive worries about real problems. They realize that the compulsions they perform are excessive or unreasonable. When someone with OCD does not recognize that their beliefs and actions are unreasonable, this is called OCD with poor insight. OCD symptoms tend to wax and wane over time. Some may be little more than background noise; others may produce extremely severe distress.