You likely have heard of the acronym "OCD" before. It is common to hear people casually say, "I'm so OCD about XYZ," referring to cleaning or organizing. Most people don't mean harm by this phrase, but it inadvertently makes OCD seem like a personality quirk akin to being neat, tidy and organized. The definition of OCD is actually quite different from this.

 

OCD is an acronym for obsessive-compulsive disorder, which is a mental health condition consisting of obsessions and compulsions. Obsessions are unwanted, recurrent thoughts, ideas, images, or impulses that appear to intrude upon a person's mind and cause distress. Obsessions can be about anything, but they often center around harm to self and others, contamination, perfectionism, relationships, one's sexuality or gender identity, and religion or morality. Obsessions are called "ego-dystonic", meaning they are contrary to the sufferer's values and belief system. Compulsions are repetitive, often rigid, behaviors or thoughts aimed toward relieving the distress brought on by obsessions. Compulsions are also varied, but common ones are checking, washing and cleaning, repeating certain actions, or reassurance-seeking.

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The types of obsessions and compulsions folks experience can be categorized into different themes. Common themes include contamination OCD, harm OCD, religious/moral OCD (also called scrupulosity), checking, and "just right" or perfectionism OCD. When OCD is depicted in the media, you'll often see portrayals of one of these themes, especially cleaning and checking. But there are other themes of OCD that often don't see time in the media. Less commonly known subtypes include existential OCD, sexual orientation OCD, gender identity OCD, pedophilia OCD, and relationship OCD. 

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One subtype of OCD deserves special comment. Called "pure O", this subtype of OCD does not involve overt compulsions like the other subtypes; hence, the name "pure O". However, this is a misnomer, because pure O sufferers still do compulsions; they just do them in their head. Most people in the pure O community still like to use this label, despite it being a misnomer.

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