Why Do I Have OCD?

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Almost all of my clients with OCD at some point ask me the same question: "Why do I have OCD?" The answer gives important insight into not just the origin of OCD but how people recover from it.

While there is some genetic predisposition to OCD—if you have a parent with OCD, you are more likely to develop OCD yourself than someone who does not have a parent with OCD—it is not as if there is a single gene or set of genes we can point to as a true cause of OCD. Your genetic makeup can make you more prone to developing OCD, but it does not guarantee that you will develop OCD.

The truth about intrusive thoughts

Most people with OCD think that the reason they have OCD is that they have "intrusive" thoughts that other people don't have.

Many OCD thoughts center around taboo themes that can seem disturbing at first glance. Common OCD themes are thoughts about:

• Hurting other people.
• Inappropriate sexual desires like attraction to kids or family members..
• Thoughts that go against one's religion.
• Thinking you may be contaminated with germs, viruses, and could get sick or get others sick.
• Questioning whether you've done necessary tasks (e.g. locking doors) or whether you've done something horrible that you can't remember.

There are many more examples; the list goes on and on.

But research has shown that thoughts like these are actually not unique to people with OCD. In fact, pretty much everyone has these kinds of thoughts. There have actually been studies (like this one) in which researchers have surveyed people in the general population (meaning random people, not just people with OCD) and asked if they've ever had thoughts like the above—and 94 percent of people report that they have had thoughts like those above. Yes, really, 94 percent! And I always joke to my clients that I think the other 6 percent are just lying.

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So why can pretty much everyone have these thoughts but only about 2 percent of the population develops OCD?

Because when most people have a thought about stabbing somebody with a knife, they think, "Oh that was weird, whatever," and then they move on with their day.

But some people have a thought about stabbing somebody and then think, "Oh my god, why would I have a thought about stabbing somebody?! That's horrible, how could I possibly think that? What does that mean that I thought that? I'd better never think that again!"

And guess what happens when you try not to think a thought? That thought becomes all you can think about.

That is how you get OCD: by treating thoughts as dangerous...even though, really, thoughts are just thoughts. They are not dangerous, and they don't have to mean anything.

The good news is that when you start treating these thoughts as no big deal, that is when OCD gets better. So the next time you have one of these thoughts, all you have to do is say, "Cool, there's that thought again...whatever, no big deal," and then move on with whatever you were doing in spite of the fact that the thought is there.

If you don't treat the thoughts like a problem, they eventually stop being a problem.