Nor are there any medical exams that can predict if one will fall victim to such illnesses.To be diagnosed with OCD, a person must have obsessions, compulsions, or both, according to the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM). The DSM notes that there are multiple characteristics that can turn obsessions and compulsions from normalized behavior to "clinically significant". There has to be recurring and strong thoughts or impulsive that intrude on the day to day lives of the patients and cause noticeable levels of anxiousness.These thoughts, impulses, or images are of a degree or type that lies outside the normal range of worries about conventional problems. A person may attempt to ignore or suppress such obsessions, or to neutralize them with some other thought or action, and will tend to recognize the obsessions as idiosyncratic or irrational. Compulsions become clinically significant when a person feels driven to perform them in response to an obsession, or according to rules that must be applied rigidly, and when the person consequently feels or causes significant distress. Therefore, while many people who do not have OCD may perform actions often associated with OCD (such as ordering items in a pantry by height), the distinction with clinically significant OCD lies in the fact that the person with OCD must perform these actions to avoid significant psychological distress.
Obsessive–compulsive disorder (OCD) is a mental and behavioral disorder in which an individual has intrusive thoughts and/or feels the need to perform certain routines repeatedly to the extent where it induces distress or impairs general function. As indicated by the disorders name, the primary symptoms of OCD are obsessions and compulsions. Obsessions are persistent unwanted thoughts, mental images, or urges that generate feelings of anxiety, disgust, or discomfort. Common obsessions include fear of contamination, obsession with symmetry, and intrusive thoughts about religion, sex, and harm. Compulsions are repeated actions or routines that occur in response to obsessions. Common compulsions include excessive hand washing, cleaning, counting, ordering, hoarding, neutralizing, seeking assurance, and checking things. Washing is in response to the fear of contamination. Ordering is the preference for tasks to be completed a specific way (e.g., organizing clothes a specific way). Hoarding is the collecting of unnecessary objects (e.g., collecting food wrappers). Neutralizing is the act of engaging in a ritual to make up for supposedly "bad behavior". Checking is the compulsion to check particular objects/places to ensure they are a certain way (e.g., checking to ensure the water is turned off). People with OCD tend to be overly cleanly, repeatedly count objects, and seek reassurance to avoid making a mistake. Many adults with OCD are aware that their compulsions do not make sense, but they perform them anyway to relieve the distress caused by obsessions.