How to Diagnose Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder

Obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) is officially classified as an anxiety disorder. One of the most severe and debilitating of this class of mental condition, OCD has the potential to severely diminish a person's quality of life. While OCD is highly treatable, many people with the condition suffer in silence due to feelings of embarrassment over their symptoms. Knowing how to diagnose obsessive-compulsive disorder can be an important first step toward convincing someone to get help.

Things You'll Need

• Psychiatrist or psychologist

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Instructions

Diagnose Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder

• 1

  Make an appointment with a psychologist or psychiatrist. Only a qualified mental health professional can adequately evaluate someone's symptoms to definitively diagnose OCD.

• 2

  Recognize true obsessive thoughts. Everyone has the potential to obsess over something once in a while. However, these thoughts become clinically neurotic when they are repetitive over a long period of time, are unwanted and produce a lot of anxiety in the person who is thinking them.

• 3

  Look for physical behaviors that are performed for the purpose of easing the anxiety produced by the obsessions. For example, a person with OCD may have the recurring thought of disaster befalling a loved one. That person may feel he can protect his loved one by touching the refrigerator door four times every time this thought comes up. This behavior is a compulsion and is a hallmark symptom of OCD.

• 4

  Take a look at the length of time spent on compulsions each day. If an hour or more of a person's time is spent performing compulsions on any given day, this is a strong indicator of OCD.

• 5

  Find out whether the person realizes that her obsessions and compulsions are irrational. Almost all people who suffer from OCD knows these things are a product of their own mind and have no bearing on reality. However, they do not feel able to stop the obsessions and compulsions on their own.