If you get intrusive thoughts, images or ideas you wish you didn’t have and feel compelled to have to do things or avoid things to get rid of these thoughts, you might have OCD. OCD is not just about cleaning, being orderly or making things even. You can get obsessions about your identity, about harming yourself or others, or about thoughts that seem opposite of your faith, morals or personality. Unlike people without OCD, getting these thoughts or urges makes you, or your child, afraid they might become true.
Successful treatment of OCD can include exposure with response prevention therapy, inference-based cognitive behavioral therapy, medication, and intensive daily therapy. Treatment involves learning to identify and ignore obsessions without having to resort to compulsions or avoidance.