QUICK OCD TEST

The following OCD test is adapted from the Yale-Brown Obsessive-Compulsive Scale (YBOCS), and is not meant to replace a thorough evaluation by a licensed Cognitive-Behavioral therapist or other qualified mental health professional. This quick OCD test may, however, help you to get a better idea of whether or not you have Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder.

1. Do you often have repetitive, intrusive, unwanted thoughts that upset you or make you anxious, and that you can't get out of your mind no matter how much you try?

2. Do you worry excessively about speaking or acting in a manner that you think is harmful, violent, sexually inappropriate, immoral, or sacrilegious?

3. Do you repeatedly ruminate about unwanted thoughts in an effort to prove to yourself that you will not act in a manner that you think is harmful, violent, sexually inappropriate, immoral, or sacrilegious?

4. Do you often recite prayers or repeat certain phrases in an effort to rid yourself of unwanted thoughts or to ensure that nothing bad happens?

5. Do you often repeat routine, daily activities to ensure that you did not harm someone (e.g., driving back to a certain place in the road to reassure yourself that you did not run over a pedestrian)?

6. Do you wash your hands or shower more often or for longer periods of time than most other people?

7. Do you excessively clean objects (e.g., clothes, towels, bed sheets, household items, your car interior, furniture, etc.)?

8. Do you repeatedly visually check to be sure you have properly performed a just-completed task (e.g., looking to be sure you have signed a check, re-opening a mailbox to be sure you have deposited a letter, etc.)?

9. Do you often repeat routine behaviors (e.g., locking doors, turning off light switches, turning off stove burners, etc.) because you are not sure you have done these behaviors or done them "just right"?

10. Do you frequently ask others for reassurance that tasks have been properly completed (e.g., "Did I lock the door?" "Did I shut the windows?" etc.)

11. Do you repeatedly ask others for reassurance that you have not done something "wrong," "bad," or harmful?

12. Do you unnecessarily arrange, order, or tidy the contents of your desk, closets, cabinets, refrigerator, bookshelves, etc., in an effort to make them symmetrical or "just right"?

13. Do you unnecessarily straighten common household objects such as window blinds or rugs in an effort to make them symmetrical or "just right" (e.g., window blinds, rugs, papers, etc)?

14. Do you repeatedly count mundane items that do not really merit counting (e.g., ceiling tiles, floor tiles, books, records, clothes, light poles, cars, etc.)?

15. Do you have great difficulty discarding things that have no practical value and that most other people would consider trash (e.g., old newspapers or magazines, receipts, useless papers, clothing you have not worn in years, empty food containers, etc.)?