“#ThatsOCD”: Understanding OCD Beyond the Stereotypes
OCD Awareness Week | October 11–17, 2026
When I first began working with those who experience obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD), one statistic really stood out to me. On average, people spend at least seven years (and sometimes up to sixteen!) between the onset of symptoms and receiving an accurate diagnosis. This is just the start to their journey into effective treatment.
Seven. Years. And for some? The journey is considerably longer.
OCD can be incredibly distressing. The thoughts themselves can feel frightening, confusing, or completely at odds with who someone understands themselves to be. There can be an enormous amount of shame attached to the content of those thoughts. This often adds to the difficulty in talking about them, let alone asking for help.
Many people spend years in isolation, trying to make sense of their experiences. Part of what makes this so difficult is that OCD is still widely misunderstood, both by the public and by the people experiencing it themselves.
October 11–17, 2026, marks OCD Awareness Week, led by the International OCD Foundation (IOCDF). This year’s theme, “That’s OCD,” aims to challenge common misconceptions and bring greater awareness to the many ways OCD can show up.
In the spirit of this year’s campaign, let’s talk about a few things that are often misunderstood.
1. OCD is more than contamination & checking
When many people think of OCD they might picture someone who washes their hands repeatedly, checks that the door is locked or the stove is off, or needs everything to be perfectly organized. And while these experiences can certainly be part of OCD, they represent a portion of what the disorder can look like.
OCD involves obsessions and compulsions. Let’s start with some definitions! Obsessions are unwanted, intrusive thoughts, images, or urges that cause significant distress. Compulsions are repetitive behaviours or mental acts that a person feels driven to perform, these are often done in an attempt to reduce distress or prevent something feared from happening.
The themes of these obsessions can vary enormously. Someone might experience persistent fears about accidentally harming a loved one. Another person might repeatedly question whether they’re a good person, review past interactions to determine whether they’ve done something wrong, or become caught in endless uncertainty about their relationship. Others might experience intrusive sexual thoughts, religious or moral concerns, or fears about their health.
The theme of an intrusive thought does not determine whether someone has OCD. What matters is the broader pattern of obsessions, compulsions, distress, and how these experiences affect a person’s life.
When OCD doesn’t match the stereotypes, people may not recognize what they’re experiencing. Symptoms can be misunderstood as general anxiety, perfectionism, or simply being someone who overthinks things. This can contribute to the delay of appropriate assessment and support.
2. Not all compulsions are visible
When we hear the word compulsion, we might imagine a repeated physical action: washing hands, checking locks, or arranging objects. But compulsions can also happen entirely within someone’s mind.
These are often called mental compulsions, and they can be incredibly difficult for others to recognize.
Someone might repeatedly replay a conversation to determine whether they offended someone. They might mentally review a memory, analyze their feelings to establish what they really feel, silently repeat phrases, or seek reassurance from others to resolve a persistent doubt.
From the outside, someone might appear to be going about their day as usual. Internally, however, they may be caught in an exhausting cycle of questioning, analyzing, checking, and trying to reach a sense of certainty that never seems to last.
This is one reason OCD can go unnoticed for so long. Sometimes, the most exhausting parts of OCD happen quietly, behind the scenes, while someone works hard to conceal how much they’re struggling.
3. Why reassurance doesn’t always help
It’s understandable to want answers when something feels frightening or uncertain. Most of us try to make sense of uncomfortable thoughts and feelings, whether by reasoning through a problem or seeking reassurance from someone we trust.
But OCD can turn this understandable desire for relief into a repetitive & vicious cycle.
Here’s what I mean: An intrusive thought appears. It creates distress or uncertainty. The person tries to resolve it by checking, analyzing, seeking reassurance, or mentally reviewing the situation. These responses may bring temporary relief, but the doubt often returns, and the person feels compelled to work through it again.
For example, someone might have an unwanted thought about accidentally harming a loved one. Horrified by the thought, they begin reviewing their intentions or asking someone to confirm that they would never do such a thing. The reassurance may help for a short period of time, but when the doubt returns, they feel the need to seek reassurance again.
The difficulty isn’t that the person hasn’t thought hard enough or found the right answer. It’s that repeatedly trying to eliminate the doubt can become part of the cycle that keeps OCD going.
This is also why OCD-specific treatment doesn’t simply focus on finding a convincing answer to every fear. Evidence-based treatment, such as Exposure and Response Prevention (ERP), helps people gradually change how they respond to intrusive thoughts and uncertainty without relying on compulsions to obtain relief.
This doesn’t mean reassurance is always harmful, or that every attempt to think something through is a compulsion. The concern is when a response becomes repetitive, driven by the need for certainty, and increasingly difficult to resist.
4. Shame can keep people struggling in silence
I want to return to this point because it deserves particular emphasis.
The content of someone’s intrusive thoughts can make it incredibly difficult to speak openly about what they’re experiencing. A person might worry that having a thought means they secretly want it to happen, or fear that a question they cannot stop asking themselves reveals something terrible about their character.
Some people become very skilled at hiding their symptoms. Others don’t have language for what they’re experiencing and assume they simply need to try harder to control their thoughts.
Having an intrusive thought is not the same as wanting it, endorsing it, or acting on it.
When OCD is misunderstood, it becomes easier to interpret symptoms as a personal failing rather than a pattern that can be understood and treated. People deserve to be able to talk about their experiences without being reduced to the content of their thoughts or made to feel ashamed for needing support.
A final thought for OCD Awareness Week
The International OCD Foundation’s “That’s OCD” campaign reminds us that the experience of OCD can be very unique & diverse from person to person. Often, not at all what the broader public has been taught to expect.
The more we collectively understand the disorder, the more opportunities we create for people to recognize their experiences, speak about them, and find appropriate support.
Sometimes, awareness begins with realizing that an experience you thought you had to keep to yourself is something other people understand, too.
OCD is highly treatable, and you don’t need to have everything figured out before reaching out for help.
Wondering if individual therapy might be a good next step?
If you’re feeling stuck, disconnected, or caught in patterns that you can’t seem to change on your own, you’re welcome to get in touch to explore whether individual therapy might be a good fit.
I offer individual counselling and support for OCD and anxiety disorders in Edmonton and virtually across Alberta.
Click here to learn more about individual therapy!
Learn more about OCD and OCD Awareness Week through the International OCD Foundation (IOCDF).
This article is intended for educational purposes and is not a substitute for an individualized assessment or mental health care
