Name: Signs It’s OCD - NOT Perfectionism
Uploaded: 2025-12-12T18:00:18.000Z
Duration: 4 min 32 s
Description: Thousands of YouTube videos with English-Chinese subtitles! Now you can learn to understand native speakers, expand your vocabulary, and improve your pronunciation...

Before we begin, this is a disclaimer that this video is for informative purposes only and is not intended to diagnose or treat any condition.

Please reach out to a qualified healthcare provider or mental health professional if you're struggling with that said, let's begin Are you familiar with Obsessive Compulsive Disorder?

Many who are unfamiliar with the disorder often associate it with purely perfectionism.

Some individuals may even think they're so OCD due to perfectionist traits which can be harmful to those who actually suffer from ocd.

OCD and perfectionism are two very different things.

The National Institute of Mental Health defines OCD as a common, chronic and long lasting disorder in which a person has uncontrollable reoccurring thoughts, obsessions, behaviors and or compulsions that they feel the urge to repeat over and over.

While perfectionism is often seen as a personality trait where one feels the need to be perfect in what they do, often being more detail oriented and critical of certain projects, tasks or oneself unaware of the differences.

Many see OCD and perfectionism as one in the same, but they are very different.

For one, OCD is a mental disorder, while perfectionism is a personality trait.

Perfectionism is not considered a disorder.

An article in the journal Frontiers of Psychiatry describes a mental disorder, a syndrome characterized by clinically significant disturbances in an individual's cognition, emotion regulation or behavior that reflects a dysfunction in the psychological, biological or developmental process underlying mental functioning.

rather a mental illness that disrupts mental and physical functions as well as one's day to day life.

However, there has been a link to perfectionism as a trait in individuals who have obsessive Compulsive personality disorder.

So how exactly are they similar and how do they differ?

The difference lies in the level of rationale one has in regards to the thought or action.

A perfectionist may have their own morning ritual or organizational habits, for example.

This often does not get in the way of their life.

Many perfectionists simply enjoy being thorough and detail oriented.

A perfectionist may enjoy organizing their closet by color, or they may have high standards for cleanliness.

On the other hand, people with OCD may have intrusive thoughts that cause them to enact compulsions repetitively, whereas a perfectionist may wash their hands extra thoroughly.

Someone with OCD may feel the need to pump the hand soap dispenser dozens of times until it feels right.

This acts as a compulsion and can be debilitating for those suffering from the mental disorder.

In fact, many who suffer from OCD don't relate to compulsions that involve washing their hands or organizing.

Many with OCD suffer from intrusive thoughts that are constant, which often lead them to carry out compulsions.

Examples of common intrusive thoughts among those suffering from the disorder are thoughts of causing violent harm to loved ones, causing sexual harm to others, the thought that simply thinking about something terrible will make it more likely to happen, or even hyper awareness of bodily sensations often called sensory motor obsessions.

There are several ways OCD can manifest itself.

Common types of OCD checking contamination, mental contamination, intrusive thoughts, ruminations and symmetry and orderliness.

If you'd like to learn more about the types of OCD and how they manifest, be sure to check out our video on the topic.

Do you have constant intrusive thoughts and or obsessions?

Do you feel an ongoing urge to enact repetitive compulsions?

Are your physical and mental functions being disrupted due to obsessive thoughts and compulsions?

If so, we encourage you to reach out to a qualified healthcare provider or mental health professional to get a proper diagnosis.

So do you know the differences between OCD and perfectionism?

Are you a perfectionist or do you suffer from ocd?

Feel free to share your experiences with us in the comments.

Or maybe you're just here to learn more about mental health and psychology.

Consider yourself a psych 2 goer if you found this video helpful.

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Signs It’s OCD - NOT Perfectionism

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