About OCD
What is OCD
Obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) is a mental health condition that causes a pattern of unwanted thoughts and fears (obsessions). These lead to repetitive behaviors (compulsions) that can interfere with your daily life and responsibilities.
Key Symptoms of OCD
- Obsessions: Unwanted, intrusive thoughts, urges or mental images that cause strong anxiety
- Compulsions: Repetitive actions or mental rituals you feel you must do to ease or get rid of the obsessions
Obsession symptoms
Contamination: Fear of germs, dirt or body fluids
Religion or morality: Worry about offending a higher power or about what’s right and wrong
Sexual thoughts: Unwanted, intrusive sexual thoughts that feel disturbing or out of character
Violence: Fear of harming yourself or others
Perfection: Strong need for order, neatness or symmetry and fear of making mistakes
Relationship: Doubting your romantic partner’s attraction or love
Compulsion symptoms
Arranging: Putting items in a very specific order until it feels “right”
Mental rituals: Saying words, phrases or prayers in your head while doing unrelated tasks
Checking: Constantly making sure nothing bad happened, you didn’t make any mistakes and everyone’s safe
Protective: A behavior or mental act performed to prevent a feared outcome
Magical/undoing: Belief that your thoughts or actions can cause real-life events, even when there’s no logical connection
Repeating: Doing things over and over, like tapping, walking through doors or repeating actions a certain number of times
OCD Medications
Medications may reduce OCD symptoms. The most common ones are selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs). These affect serotonin, a brain chemical that helps control mood and anxiety.
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved these SSRIs for OCD:
- Fluoxetine
- Fluvoxamine
- Paroxetine
- Sertraline
