There is a huge overlap between OCD and anxiety and it is possible to have both. Often, people confuse OCD for anxiety. According to talkspace.com, “while both mental health conditions involve repetitive worrying, people with obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) often engage in unwanted and repetitive behavior in response to their worry. People with anxiety, however, tend to overthink their worry, but don’t act in specific responsive manners.”

Anxiety is common and characterized by excessive worrying and can result in a lot of bodily reactions such as palms sweating, heart pounding, or feeling numb. Sometimes it can feel like being overwhelmed and becoming easily irritated. With anxiety, you can worry about a variety of topics.

With OCD, there is also much worrying, rumination and feeling those same overwhelming body sensations. Almost everyone with OCD experiences anxiety but not everyone with anxiety has OCD. OCD is characterized by extreme ‘what ifs’ and usually revolve around obsessing over that thought and no amount of reassurance or checking quells the anxiety.

Picture this: you are having a terrible day at work. Your coworker was frowning in your direction all day and you think “they must hate me!” and you think “I’ll never finish all this work.” You come home and see the house is a mess. You find your anxiety rising and can’t rest until you finish cleaning. After a couple hours, the house is clean, and you can finally relax. Sure, you may have thoughts come and go such as “I’m never going to get where I want to be in life” or “I wonder if that cashier thought I was an idiot when I forgot my wallet” but these thoughts come and go throughout the day. It is frustrating and cause issues in your day but not hours are spent on obsessing and doing rituals to relieve the anxiety.

Now picture the same scenario but this time you have OCD: You wake up and think if I don’t get up out of bed and brush my teeth just right then something bad might happen. You spend an hour or two brushing your teeth over and over; they just don’t feel clean enough.

Finally, you blink a few times to get rid of those thoughts and finally get dressed and head to work. On your way to work you hit a speed bump; you think “Oh no what if I hit and killed someone?” you stop and get out of your car and check, but the thoughts don’t stop there. You think “They probably dragged themselves off the road and I just can’t see them.” You frantically check your phone to see if there has been a report of a hit and run, thinking you must have caused an accident.

You finally get to work, and you think you might have done a report wrong and you’re going to get in trouble. You spend all morning worrying about your boss firing you over a mistake. Your uncle calls to see how you’re doing, and you get an intrusive image of having sexual relations with him and become instantly disgusted with yourself on why you’d think of such a thing. You go home and take a shower but can’t seem to get clean enough after your 3rd or 4th shower.

Finally, you head to bed but can’t get to bed until you know your bed is exactly in the center of the room.

OCD is like your brain getting stuck on constant what ifs, checking and reassurance, or other compulsions done repeatedly can only temporarily quell the anxiety. If you think you may have OCD, contact us for a complimentary consultation and learn if OCD treatment is right for you.