OCD signs and symptoms
People with obsessive compulsive disorder can have obsessions, compulsions, or both. Despite the stereotype, OCD isn’t just about order and cleanliness. Obsessions can include:
- Intrusive sexual thoughts
- Thoughts of harm to self or others
- Phobias
- Symmetry/order
- Religious thoughts
- Safety
- Cleanliness (e.g. germs, poisons, body fluids)
Sometimes the anxiety connected with these repetitive thoughts can be reduced, briefly, by performing a specific activity – for example, checking to make sure all the doors are locked. These behaviours are called compulsions, and can include:
- Washing and cleaning
- Checking (e.g. that doors are locked, the stove is turned off)
- Hoarding
- Counting (e.g. doing things in groups of four, counting steps, counting people)
- Ordering and arranging
- Repeating (e.g. speech, movements)
