| Type of obsession | Examples of obsessions: People with OCD may be preoccupied with anxiety-inducing thoughts about… | Type of compulsion | Examples of compulsions: In order to decrease anxiety associated with an obsession, people may repeatedly be driven to… |
| Contamination | germs, dirt | Washing | wash themselves or objects in order to minimize any imagined contamination |
| Order | objects being disorganized, or a consuming desire to have objects or situations conform to a particular order or alignment | Ordering | order objects, such as canned goods in the cupboard, so that everything in the environment is “just so” (and often making family members and friends maintain this order) |
| Losing control | the possibility of behaving impulsively or aggressively, such as yelling during a funeral | Counting | count in response to an unwanted thought, which leads to a sense that the unwanted thought is neutralized (for instance, after each thought of blurting out an obscenity, methodically counting to 50) |
| Doubt | whether an action, such as turning off the stove, was performed | Checking | check that they did, in fact, perform a behavior about which they had doubts (such as repeatedly checking that the stove is turned off) |