Obsessive Compulsive Disorder can be understood as thoughts based on the emotion of fear leading to worry and anxiety. These thoughts lead to irrational actions around doing something to prevent a feared outcome.

For example, a woman might finds herself having to bring a toaster and coffee maker to work because she feels like it is the only way to prevent her house from catching fire.

While she is somewhat aware of how irrational it is, she cannot stop herself.

She will also feel very embarrassed having to carry them in her purse to her work cubicle, only increasing her anxiety.

Despite this, each day when she leaves the house, her worries come back and so she finds herself doing the same action again and again.

Some other examples could be rituals around hand washing, driving, light switches, door locking religious scruples—not to be confused with perfectionism (OCD can be differentiated by the distress involved).

In the book Brainlocked by Jeffery Scwartz, he recommends a really simple tool to help fights the feelings of anxiety you may have with OCD:

Reattribute (symptoms not reality)
Relabel (these are symptoms of OCD)
Refocus (spend attention elsewhere, following through on the thoughts only reinforce them)
Revalue (these thoughts and feelings aren’t going to matter if I don’t let them).

As Catholics we get to apply the tools of psychology and of faith.

So while we use the above tools we can also keep in mind that God made great saints of those who may have struggled with OCD.

It is said that St. Alphonsus de Liguori struggled with scrupulosity, and yet he is one of the Church’s greatest moral teachers.

Experiencing OCD doesn’t have to be an obstacle to sanctity, but rather a part of the path.