One of the most commonly presented types of OCD is “Checking OCD.” It’s typically shown in the media in the form of compulsive behaviors like locking and unlocking a door hundreds of times or flicking a light switch repeatedly.

These acts might seem ridiculous to some people, even humorous perhaps. But the truth is that someone suffering from OCD that displays such actions is typically riddled with anxiety, so much so that their personal life suffers tremendously.

They may, for example, engage in such compulsions for literally hours at a time, making it difficult or even impossible to maintain a job or social relationships.

Just like other compulsions, these types of OCD can be the result of obsessions that plague the mind of the sufferers.

What Are Some of the Checking OCD Symptoms?

These anxieties can be connected to a wide range of things resulting in behaviors like checking:

• Door and window locks
• Water taps
• Lights
• Appliances
• Wallets

These types of OCD can also manifest in obsessive behaviors that seem unrelated to personal safety like:

• Re-reading documents obsessively before sending them to ensure nothing inadvertently offensive is included
• Checking in on loved ones over and over again
• Researching symptoms of a disease constantly
• Obsessing over information to make sure they don’t miss an important detail
• Asking for reassurance from loved ones that they weren’t offended by the sufferer’s remarks

ou may have seen representations of these types of OCD in movies like As Good As It Gets or Matchstick Men. Obsessive compulsive sufferers that have a contamination-related compulsion or obsession will typically be found washing themselves or their environment to an unhealthy degree.

They may, for instance, buy a large quantity of individually wrapped hand soaps, use each once, and open a new package every time they need to wash their hands.

Such behaviors are commonly driven by an extreme fear of contracting diseases through germs that may be clinging to surfaces.

For this reason, sufferers of these types of obsessive compulsive disorder may go to great lengths to avoid:

• The outdoors
• Contact with other people
• Public restrooms
• Restaurants
• Door knobs and handles
• Hospitals

A sub-category of the Contamination type of OCD, Mental Contamination is much the same as the physical contamination version. However, instead of physical germs being the source of an individual’s obsession is a type of internal uncleanliness.

In many cases, such uncleanliness is brought on by being psychologically hurt. If, for instance, these types of OCD sufferers are ridiculed by someone then they may spend hours upon hours engaging in compulsive behaviors like washing their bodies.

It’s the emotional damage, then, that causes the compulsions, not the fear of physical illness.

The above list categorizes the more common forms of Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder and some of the fears associated with them. But this is by no means an exhaustive list and there will always be other OCD types not listed here. So if you’re experiencing distressing and unwanted obsessions or compulsions not listed here, this does not mean it is definitely not OCD,  if these impact significantly on your everyday functioning this could still represent a principal component in the clinical diagnosis of Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder and you should consult a doctor for a formal diagnosis.

Regardless of the type of OCD a person may be suffering with, the following three components are generally present, triggers, avoidance and reassurance, but what do they all mean?

To “ruminate” derives from the Latin root word ruminari which means literally ‘chewed over.’ And just how a cow ruminates on cud, chewing on a single chunk endlessly, someone with obsessive compulsive disorder may suffer from seemingly endless ruminations themselves.

Rather than grass though, their ruminations are on prolonged chains of thought on topics that might be entirely unproductive.

The differentiating characteristic here is that such thoughts aren’t really objectionable like intrusive thoughts. Instead, these types of OCD sufferers may spend hours upon hours each day indulging in such thoughts rather than trying to suppress them.

Unlike ruminations, intrusive thoughts are typically disturbing for the individual afflicted by them. They occur involuntarily and can be concerned with almost any variety of topics. These types of OCD sufferers may be bombarded with unwelcome thoughts concerning:

• Sexuality – Fear of being sexually attracted to members of the same sex, sexual thoughts about religious figures, fear of being attracted to children and family members, etc.
• Relationships – Obsessive need for approval, constantly doubting the faithfulness of a partner, over-analyzing a partner’s actions and feelings, etc.
• Magical Thinking – Fearing that thoughts directly influence unrelated events like the weather or a car crash. It may also lead people to believe thinking about an action will increase the likelihood that they’ll commit that action.
• Religion – An obsession with religious ritual like repeating prayers or kissing objects, believing that they have committed unknown sins and are destined for hell, a fear of defiling a religious location or custom, etc.
• Bodily Sensations (Sensorimotor OCD) – Hyperawareness of specific bodily functions like breathing, blinking, visual distractions, swallowing, or focusing intently on a single part of the body.
• Violence – Fears of carrying out violent acts against loved ones or innocent people, jumping in front of a train or other vehicle, poisoning people, etc.
• Symmetry and Order – Being obsessed with having everything “just right.” It could be pictures on a table, books on a shelf, keeping windows smudge-free, etc.

Due to the meteoric rise in popularity of shows related to this type of OCD, hoarding has become one of the most widely recognized types of obsessive compulsive disorder.

These types of OCD are characterized by:

• An inability to discard old, unusable items
• A compulsion to collect a large number of useless items
• Difficulty organizing these objects

These individuals will generally have homes that are littered with innumerable old and useless items, so much so that the hoarders themselves will typically only be able to use a very small part of their own home.

Old newspapers, used plastic bags, decaying food, and even human waste are just a few examples of material that a hoarder may be incapable of throwing away.

This tends to be one of the most dangerous types of OCD for a few reasons. First, an unhygienic environment can lead to contracting a number of different diseases, some of which can end up being fatal.

Beyond hygienic reasons though, the home of a hoarder may be difficult to navigate. As such, if the homes of sufferers of this type of OCD end up experiencing a fire, the individual may be unable to get out safely as a result of all the piled up materials.

The 3 Types of Hoarding

Hoarding can be broken down into three different categories:

• Sentimental Hoarding – This type of hoarder attaches a lot of emotional significance to each object, making it very difficult to ever get rid of it. In fact, they may begin to believe that discarding such an object may actually make it impossible to hold on to the memory associated with it.
• Deprivation Hoarding – This type of hoarding is characterized by being unable to throw away an item because they may need it in the future, no matter how unlikely such a situation really is. Only wearing one pair of shoes but owning fifteen others just in case, for instance, is one example of deprivation hoarding.
• Preventing Harm to Others Hoarding – Holding onto certain items like broken glass or even human waste because it might harm others is part of this type of hoarding. Even though such fears are irrational, these types of hoarders are trying to protect other people at the expense of themselves.