Contamination OCD often involves staying away from situations that might result in disease, germs, and/or infection of some kind. Sometimes this worry is for ourselves, and other times it can include a worry about pets or people close to us. Sometimes the worry is only in specific situations (i.e. at home), but it can also be generalized to multiple locations. It can also be only over some things (i.e. handling raw chicken) but not others.

Common compulsions include:

• Researching contamination

• Reassurance seeking

• Excessive checking

• Avoiding situations that may trigger intrusive thoughts

• Excessive handwashing/cleaning

Safety OCD often involves checking locks, appliances, and other things that, if left on or open, could be unsafe. While it’s common to recheck appliances and locks, people with OCD may find themselves checking multiple times, calling friends to check for them, and/or taking photos of appliances and locks to reassure themselves that they did, in fact, secure whatever it is that needed to be secured.

Common compulsions include:

• Excessive checking

• Reassurance seeking

Gender OCD happens when cisgender clients have intrusive thoughts about being transgender or vice versa. Clients with this subtype may wonder “am I actually transgender, and I haven’t come to terms with that?” despite any evidence of this being their actual desire.

Common compulsions include:

• Researching gender identity development

• Reassurance seeking

• Questioning one’s historical gender identity development

• Avoiding situations that may trigger intrusive thoughts (e.g. watching movies with transgender characters)

Some folks with OCD have unwanted sexual thoughts about people they are not attracted to. This could be unwanted sexual thoughts toward strangers, family members, minors, or a specific gender (whatever is opposite from your sexual orientation). While these thoughts often lead those with OCD to question their sexual desires, these thoughts are disturbing and do not align with their values/identity.

Common compulsions include:

• Monitoring physiological arousal responses

• Avoiding playgrounds, LGBTQ movies, or other situations that may trigger unwanted sexual thoughts

• Researching sexual development

• Reassurance seeking

• Confessing

• Questioning one’s historical sexual development

OCD can include unwanted violent thoughts toward people close to us, strangers, and other innocent people. People with these unwanted thoughts feel disturbed by them and question “am I secretly violent person?” despite any actions and desires that would confirm that thought.

Common compulsions include:

• Avoiding violent movies and other situations that trigger intrusive thoughts

• Researching antisocial/sociopathic development

• Confessing

• Reassurance seeking

People with this OCD subtype have intrusive thoughts around suicide and/or self-harm. They may think they are suicidal or want to cause harm to themselves despite any previous actions or desires aligning with real suicidal ideation or self-harm.

Common compulsions include:

• Reassurance seeking

• Confessing

• Researching suicidal or self-harming development

People with a strong religious identity may experience OCD around their faith. This can include wanting to know for certain where they are going after they die, wanting certainty around theological beliefs, or experiencing intrusive thoughts deemed “sacrilegious.”

Common compulsions include:

• Confessing

• Researching theological topics

• Excessive/repetitive prayer

• Reassurance seeking

Moral scrupulosity involves holding oneself to an impossible standard over how we interact with the world and others and/or fearing one might do something inconsistent with their moral compass (e.g., worrying about cheating on your partner five years from now, despite having no desire to do so).

Sometimes moral scrupulosity can involve choices that are elevated to this morally high stakes decision that if you get wrong could result in a complete character failure on your part.

“Where do I buy the most ethically sourced chocolate?”

“What do I do with my Tesla in this political landscape?”

“What about all the water that it takes to make almonds?”

It’s good to be conscientious, but this type of OCD feels more paralyzing than attentive.

Common compulsions include:

• Confessing

• Researching

While may of us may struggle with perfectionism, those with OCD may spend a significant amount of time making things “just right” in their work, home, health, finances, or appearance to name a few. People with this subtype of OCD may have trouble walking away from things that aren’t deemed “perfect.”

Common compulsions include:

• Excessive checking

• Reassurance seeking

• Excessive Fixing

Health OCD happens when someone is intensely monitoring their physiological responses and checking to see if they might have cancer, a brain tumor, or some other illness. They might experience this as noticing “am I breathing weird?” or “does my head feel okay?” and then proceeding to use Reddit, WebMD, and every other tool at their disposal to check/research signs of some destructive health issue.

Common compulsions include:

• Researching health issues

• Monitoring physiological responses

• Reassurance seeking

• Scheduling unnecessary doctor’s appointments

While it’s common for people to question, “am I with the right romantic partner?” People with this OCD subtype play this question repetitively and tend to seek out reasons to doubt their relationship security. They may prematurely break off the relationship or cause a significant amount of distress for themselves and their partner by consistently questioning if they should be together.

Common compulsions include:

• Researching relationship development

• Questioning their feelings about the relationship

• Confessing

• Reassurance seeking

While this subtype is often popularized on TV, this OCD subtype is less common that one might imagine. Symmetry OCD can involve aligning things into a symmetrical pattern, but it can also be around physical touch (e.g. your right shoulder bumps against something, and you feel like you have to do the same to your left shoulder to even things out).

Common compulsions include:

• Excessive evening things out

• Excessive fixing

I’ve listed a few common OCD subtypes, but this list is not exhaustive. For more info, reach out, schedule a consultation; let’s work through it together.