The Different Types of OCD

This list categorises the various common forms of OCD and the fears associated with them. This list is not exhaustive and there will always be forms of OCD that have been omitted from the list. If this is the case, and your obsession or compulsion is not listed, remember that if you are experiencing distressing unwanted obsessions and/or compulsions that impact to a significant level upon your everyday functioning these represent principal components in the clinical diagnosis of Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder.

Germs and Illness - fear of contimination:

Using public toilets
Coming into contact with chemicals
Shaking hands
Touching door knobs/handles
Using public telephones
Waiting in a GP’s surgery
Visiting hospitals
Eating in a cafe/restaurant
Washing clothes in a launderette
Touching rails on stairwells
Touching poles
Being in a crowd
Contracting HIV/AIDS from red blood like stains
Clothes (having to shake clothes to remove dead skin cells)

All of these fears are often accompanied by rituals of repetitive hand or body washing.

Checking - the need to check:

Gas or electric stove knobs
Water taps
Door locks
House alarm
Windows
Appliances
House lights
Car doors
Letters before sealing / mailing
Candles
Route after driving
Wallet or purse

The checking is often carried out multiple times, often making the
checker late for work and other appointments.

 

Relationships:

Constantly analyse the depth of your feelings for your partner, placing your partner and the relationship under a microscope and finding fault.

Doubting your partner is being faithful.

Questioning your own sexuality, putting strain on existing relationship.

The urge to end the relationship to rid the sufferer of the anxiety.

 

Sexual Thoughts - Fear of:

Sexually abusing children or loved ones
Being homosexual
Cheating on ones partner

 

Magical Thinking - believing that:

A certain colour or number has good or bad luck associated with it
Certain days have good or bad luck associated with them
A loved one’s death can be predicted
One’s thoughts can cause disasters to occur
Stepping on cracks in the pavement can make bad things happen
Whatever comes to mind can come true
Breaking chain letters will actually bring bad luck
Attending a funeral will bring death
One can inadvertently cause harm to others with thoughts or carelessness

All of these thoughts often result in avoidance of feared objects.

 

Religious - believing that:

Sins committed will never be forgiven by God
One will have bad thoughts in a religious building
One will scream loudly in a religious location
Certain prayers have to be said over and over again
Religious objects need to be touched or kissed repeatedly
One is always doing something sinful

These fears prevent the sufferer from deriving peace from their religion.

 

Violent Thoughts - fear of:

Violently harming children or loved ones
Killing innocent people
Touching knives and other sharp objects
Jumping in front of a train or fast moving bus
Poisoning the food of loved ones
Acting on unwanted impulses, e.g. running someone over, stabbing someone

Most sufferers with these types of fears often end up judging themselves as a bad person.

 

Counting & re-reading - need to:

Count things over and over again, e.g. patterns on a wall, chairs books on a shelf
Re-read words or lines in a book over and over again
Re-reading a letter over and over before sealing it

Counting and re-reading can take up a lot of time and end up making sufferers late for work and appointments.

 

Orderliness - the need to:

Have everything neat and in its place at all times
Have pictures hanging aligned and straight
Have canned food items all facing the same way, usually forward
Have clothes on the rail all hanging perfectly and facing the same way
Have everything spotless, with no marks or smudges on windows and surfaces
Have books lined up perfectly in a row on a bookshelf

A lot of time is spent trying to get the order ‘just right’ and that time consuming checking can result in sufferers being extremely late for work and appointments.

 

Hoarding

Hoarders tend to buy, save or collect anything and everything and are unable to throw anything away, even when space is running out. This often reaches such a point that the hoarder ends up living in a small area of a room, with the rest taken over by the saved or difficult to discard items. A person may hoard because they:

Fear that harm will occur if they throw things away (e.g. dustman injured by sharp edges of discarded cans or glass objects, or that someone may be contaminated from a discarded item)
Feel that they may ‘need’ the object later, sometimes because of previous experience of deprivation
Believe that an object holds special emotional significance

 

Acronyms - HOCD, POCD, ROCD:

Some sufferers use acronyms to refer to their type of OCD. It is worth noting that these acronyms have no official medical meaning, and actually lead to confusion over the type of OCD being referred to. OCD-UK do not recommend, or endorse the use of such acronyms.

 

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