One key reason for this reclassification is that brain chemicals in people with OCD vs anxiety are significantly different. Now that it’s recognized as a common, highly disabling yet treatable disorder of the brain, with its own diagnosis, our understanding continues to advance, thus improving OCD treatments available. It wasn’t that long ago that OCD was fairly neglected in terms of research and studies, as it was considered just a type of anxiety disorder. For example, if a person thinks that something will happen if they don’t touch their left elbow, they’ll do it once, and then additional times, often thinking they haven’t done it yet, or that once wasn’t enough.” Talkspace therapist Cynthia V. “OCD is a type of anxiety that involves unwanted thoughts that are then followed by obsessive behaviors or repetitions of those thoughts. They usually, but not always, know they’re acting in an irrational manner.
A person with OCD, however, will use repetitive, typically unhelpful behaviors to try and thwart the obsessive thought they have.A person with an anxiety disorder will experience excessive worry, but not engage in compulsive behavior to reduce their anxiety.While anxiety disorders are typically characterized by excessive worry, OCD is marked by unwanted thoughts that lead to compulsive mental or physical reactions. Behaviorsīehavioral patterns in anxiety vs OCD are markedly different in a few important ways. OCD thought patterns are characterized by recurring, unwanted, and uncontrollable thoughts that someone just can’t escape. Someone with anxiety may also worry about seemingly trivial matters and everyday stressors, but to a much greater extent than others.
In general, those living with anxiety tend to worry about somewhat more appropriate topics, although the intensity of their anxiety is obviously excessive. People with other anxiety disorders typically worry about realistic, possible concerns, while someone with OCD may likely experience an unrealistic or impossible obsession. Thinking patterns in OCD vs anxiety are unique. The mental or physical acts someone adapts to try and chase away their repetitive undesired thought (obsession) are a significant and main identifier in OCD. They’d also probably still be fine shaking someone else’s hand.īasically, the key difference between anxiety and OCD is the behavior (compulsion) we see in OCD. To try and cope, they may wash their hands more than 100 times a day, or they may go out of their way to avoid contact with others.Ĭomparatively, while someone with anxiety might also worry a lot about contracting an infection or disease, they generally wouldn’t feel the need to wash their hands more than “normal” to ensure proper hygiene. Beyond that, they engage in repetitive behavior to try to distract their minds from these intrusive, disruptive thoughts.įor example, someone with OCD might be very afraid of contracting a disease or infection. The key distinction between OCD vs anxiety is that people with OCD experience repetitive thoughts, mental images, urges, or sensations that cause intense nervousness.
#General thoughts on anxiety how to
We’ll look at how to know if you have either of these common yet treatable conditions and how to get the best help dealing with your symptoms. People with anxiety, however, tend to overthink their worry, but don’t act in specific responsive manners.Ĭontinue reading to learn more about the key differences between OCD and anxiety. What’s the difference between anxiety vs OCD? While both mental health conditions involve repetitive worrying, people with obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) often engage in unwanted and repetitive behavior in response to their worry.
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