Symptoms

Obsessions — unwanted intrusive thoughts

• Constant, irrational worry about dirt, germs, or contamination.
• Excessive concern with order, arrangement, or symmetry.
• Fear that negative or aggressive thoughts or impulses will cause personal harm or harm to a loved one.
• Preoccupation with losing or throwing away objects with little or no value.
• Excessive concern about accidentally or purposefully injuring another person.
• Feeling overly responsible for the safety of others.
• Distasteful religious and sexual thoughts or images.
• Doubting that is irrational or excessive.

Compulsions — ritualistic behaviors and routines to ease anxiety or distress

• Cleaning — Repeatedly washing one’s hands, bathing, or cleaning household items, often for hours at a time.
• Checking — Checking and re-checking several to hundreds of times a day that the doors are locked, the stove is turned off, the hairdryer is unplugged, etc.
• Repeating — Inability to stop repeating a name, phrase, or simple activity (such as going through a doorway over and over).
• Mental rituals — Endless reviewing of conversations, counting; repetitively calling up “good” thoughts to neutralize “bad” thoughts or obsessions; or excessive praying and using special words or phrases to neutralize obsessions.

Request a free educational handbook.

Screen yourself or a family member for obsessive-compulsive disorder.

Updated August 2015