Obsessions, Compulsions & Disorders
What Is OCD and Do You or Someone You Know Have It?
What is OCD? In its informal, non-clinical usage, OCD is often used to describe someone who may be overly meticulous or unusually absorbed in a task or project. This day-to-day, or offhand, usage shouldn’t be confused with the clinical diagnosis on what is OCD, or obsessive compulsive disorder.
Note that only a qualified physician can answer what is OCD and if your specific symptoms mean you have, or someone you know has, the clinical disorder.
When discussing what is OCD, a person’s condition must be distinguished from the other kinds of anxiety, as well as common stress and tension that occur throughout a person’s life.
Moreover, what is OCD isn’t simply answered by situations where a person shows intense infatuation, object- or subject-fixation, and/or perfectionism.
To answer what is OCD in the clinical sense, we should refer to the scientific diagnostic criteria for obsessive compulsive disorder. That is, the person should be diagnosed by a qualified physician to either have obsessions, compulsions, or obsessions AND compulsions.
We encourage you to look around, here at this site, to learn more about the many facets of OCD, or its components of obsessions, compulsions and disorders. Perhaps you will find the answer you seek for you, or a loved one; that these answers can begin the healing process.