Common themes
- Contamination: fears about germs, substances or feeling contaminated, with repeated washing or avoidance.
- Checking and responsibility: repeated checking of locks, appliances, messages or past actions.
- Harm: unwanted thoughts about causing injury and efforts to prove that harm will not occur.
- Religion and morality: recurring doubts about sin, intentions, honesty or being a good person.
- Relationships: persistent checking of feelings, attraction or whether a relationship is right.
- Sexual themes: distressing intrusive thoughts and repeated attempts to establish what they mean.
- Symmetry and “just right” experiences: arranging or repeating until a feeling of completeness appears.
- Memory, existential and sensory themes: repeated analysis of the past, unanswerable questions or awareness of bodily processes.
Find a more detailed guide
A theme label cannot tell you the whole story
A list may help you recognise an experience, but matching a description is not enough to diagnose OCD. The assessment also asks what you do in response, how much time it takes, what you avoid and whether other difficulties may explain the symptoms.
Repeatedly checking lists to identify the “exact” theme can itself become part of a search for certainty. You can bring an incomplete description to therapy; finding the perfect label is not a requirement.
How treatment is tailored
The examples used in ERP vary with the person’s concerns, while the central work often involves reducing rituals and building tolerance of uncertainty. The plan should respect your values and ordinary safety practices. Enquire about an online assessment to discuss your own pattern.
Further reading and clinical sources
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