How does this OCD self-check work?

It asks 10 questions about common signs of OCD, which Andy wrote from the DSM-5 description of the condition. Each question scores 0 to 3, for a total from 0 to 30. A higher total means the signs come up more often for you.

No. It is Andy's own self-check, not a validated test and not a diagnosis, and the score bands are our own grouping. If your result shows many or strong signs, or the thoughts and rituals take up a lot of your day, talk to a doctor or therapist. A low score does not rule OCD out.

Is having intrusive thoughts the same as having OCD?

No. Unwanted intrusive thoughts, including disturbing ones, are near-universal. What distinguishes OCD is how much distress and meaning those thoughts are given, and how much effort goes into neutralising them through rituals, avoidance, or mental reviewing.

Yes, and you don't need an account. Your answers are saved so the result can show how your score compares with others.

What is the treatment for OCD?

Exposure and response prevention, a specific form of cognitive behavioural therapy, is the leading psychological treatment, and SSRI medication is an established option. Both work on their own, and a combination is usually kept for more severe cases or when one alone has not been enough. A doctor can refer you to someone who works specifically with OCD.

Free OCD Test (Self-Check)

OCD is when unwanted thoughts keep coming back and you feel you have to do something, like checking, washing or going over things in your head, to make the anxiety stop. This 10-question self-check asks how often that has happened to you in the last month. Andy wrote it from the DSM-5 description of OCD. It is not a validated test and it can't diagnose anything. Only a professional can diagnose OCD.

This free OCD test asks about 10 common signs of OCD and how often each one has applied to you over the last month. It takes about a minute, asks nothing personal, and gives you a result with a plain-language explanation of what it means. You never have to sign up or hand over an email. Below the test you will find what OCD is, how to read your result, and what sensible next steps look like.

1)What is OCD?

Obsessive-compulsive disorder has two halves that feed each other. Obsessions are unwanted, intrusive thoughts, images, or urges that turn up repeatedly and cause real distress. Compulsions are the things you do to make that distress go away: checking, washing, counting, arranging, repeating, or mentally reviewing. The relief is real, and that is what keeps it going. Each time a compulsion settles the anxiety, it teaches the brain that the obsession was a genuine threat and that the ritual is what averted it, so both come back stronger.

The popular picture of OCD as tidiness or hand-washing is a small and misleading slice of it. Many people with OCD have no visible rituals at all, and their compulsions are entirely mental. Common themes include fears of harm or contamination, intrusive violent or sexual thoughts that are the opposite of what the person values, a need for symmetry or rightness, and an inability to tolerate uncertainty about whether something bad has happened. Most people have distressing intrusive thoughts. OCD is what happens when those thoughts get too much meaning and too much effort goes into neutralising them.

2)Signs of OCD

The clearest signal is how a habit feels from the inside: something you have to do, on someone else's terms, rather than something you prefer.

Obsessions: recurring intrusive thoughts or images you do not want, that feel disturbing or out of character, and that are hard to dismiss.
Compulsions: checking, washing, counting, arranging, repeating actions, or seeking reassurance, done to reduce anxiety rather than because you want to.
Mental rituals: silently reviewing memories, praying to a formula, counting, or arguing with a thought until it feels resolved.
Avoidance: steering around places, objects, people, or topics that set the thoughts off.
Cost: the time it takes, the distress it causes, and the parts of life that get smaller to accommodate it.

One useful distinction: liking things neat is a preference, and it usually feels good. A compulsion is relief from something bad, and stopping it makes you anxious, where stopping a preference is merely annoying.

3)How this self-check works

Each of the 10 questions scores from 0 (not at all) to 3 (very often), so your total runs from 0 to 30. The questions cover intrusive thoughts, checking, washing, order, repeating, reassurance, avoidance, and how much time and anxiety it all takes. A higher total means these signs come up more often for you. The bands below are our own grouping to help you read your result. They are not clinical cut-offs.

OCD self-check bands (our own grouping, not clinical cut-offs)
Score	Band	What it usually suggests
0 to 7	Few signs of OCD	Little sign it is costing you time
8 to 15	Some signs of OCD	Worth noticing which habits feel like a must
16 to 22	Many signs of OCD	Worth talking to a doctor or therapist
23 to 30	Strong, frequent signs of OCD	Worth seeing a doctor or therapist soon

Two people with the same total can have very different experiences. A score that comes mostly from the checking questions is a different picture from one spread across all ten, and the pattern is often more useful than the number.

4)What your result means, and what it doesn't

A single result is a snapshot of the last month. Symptoms rise and fall with stress, sleep, and life events, so the direction your result moves matters more than any one reading. A high result means an assessment is worth having, and only that assessment can tell you whether it is OCD. A low result does not rule OCD out.

This self-check relies on your own reporting of one month, and it has not been tested against clinical assessments, so it can't tell OCD apart from conditions that look similar. One example: obsessive-compulsive disorder is not the same as obsessive-compulsive personality disorder, despite the names. OCPD is a pervasive style of perfectionism and control that the person generally does not experience as unwanted, whereas OCD symptoms feel intrusive and unwelcome to the person having them.

5)What to do next

Few or some signs: it is worth watching whether any habit is drifting from preference towards obligation, particularly if it is growing in time or spreading to new situations.
Many signs: speak with a doctor or therapist and ask specifically about OCD. Bring a rough estimate of how much time per day the thoughts and rituals take.
Strong, frequent signs: the same step, sooner. Exposure and response prevention, a specific form of CBT, is the leading psychological treatment, and SSRIs are an established medical option. Both work on their own. Combining them is usually kept for more severe cases, or for when one alone has not been enough.
In every case, resist the pull to research reassurance online. For OCD specifically, compulsive checking and reassurance-seeking make symptoms worse, and searching symptoms is one of the most common forms it takes.

OCD overlaps heavily with anxiety, and intrusive worry is a common thread through both. If general worry rather than rituals is the bigger part of your picture, the free anxiety test (GAD-7) and the free overthinking test are better starting points.

If you are struggling to cope, or you are having thoughts of harming yourself or feel in immediate danger, please contact local emergency services or a crisis line you trust right now. You do not have to manage this alone.

6)Why tracking symptoms over time helps

OCD is unusually responsive to context, and that is easy to miss while you are inside it. Symptoms tend to climb with stress, poor sleep, and uncertainty, and to ease when those settle, but the climb is gradual enough that the current level always feels like the normal one. A record makes the slope visible. Tracking your anxiety and mood alongside everyday factors also gives a therapist something far more useful than recollection to work from, since treatment progress in exposure work is measured in exactly this kind of week-to-week movement. Andy is built around that loop: a quick daily check-in, and a clear view of how your mood and anxiety move over the weeks.

7)About this self-check

This is Andy's own self-check. We wrote its 10 questions in plain words from the description of obsessive-compulsive disorder in the American Psychiatric Association's DSM-5 (2013). It is not a validated scale, and the score bands are our own grouping. It is for self-reflection and education only. It is not a substitute for professional care or diagnosis. Treatment: NICE CG31, Obsessive-compulsive disorder and body dysmorphic disorder: treatment. Last reviewed September 2026.