What is Obsessive Compulsive Disorder?

The defining features of Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (OCD) are the presence of obsessions and compulsions. Obsessions are unwanted, unwelcome ideas, images, thoughts or impulses that repeatedly enter your mind against your will. You may find them repugnant, senseless and totally against your personality. Compulsions are behaviors or thoughts that you feel driven to do or think even though you may recognize that they make no sense. Typically the obsession generates strong feelings of discomfort, usually anxiety but not necessarily (the obsession may generate other feelings such as disgust or guilt in addition to, or instead of the anxiety), and the compulsion is designed to reduce the discomfort/anxiety. A classic example might be an obsession that after having touched a doorknob that one's hands are covered in germs and unless the germs are washed off quickly sickness (and even death) are sure to follow. The compulsion might then be to wash one's hands to remove the feared germs. Unfortunately, with OCD one can never be certain that all the germs were properly washed off and so the washing is repeated and repeated often many times over in an often futile attempt to be certain that the germs have been washed away. Other times the compulsion does not appear to be so logically related to the obsession, but the person with OCD performs the compulsion anyway because it somehow reduces their distress (If I tap my foot a certain way as I get out of bed in the morning, my parents will not die today). To fully qualify for the diagnosis of OCD the obsessions and compulsions must cause marked distress and take up an hour or more per day or significantly interfere with the person's normal routine, occupational or academic functioning, or usual social activities or relationships.