Most people will admit that they have “quirks.” Some may feel a need to separate their M&M’s by color and eat the greens before the reds. Some count each step as they climb the stairs. Some need to buy their household cleaning products in multiples of two. In general, these idiosyncrasies just make us more colorful and unique.
But when do these quirks become compulsions? Is it when they become bothersome to us or the people around us? Is it when we feel distressed because something has prevented us from sorting the M&M’s? Certainly, there is a fine line between “acceptable” quirky rituals and diagnosable OCD, so where does that line fall?
The Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders was developed to help clarify psychiatric diagnoses. The DSM criteria for OCD describe several important aspects of obsessions and compulsions:
- Obsessions are “recurrent and persistent thoughts, impulses, or images” that are intrusive, inappropriate and cause anxiety or distress. Obsessive thoughts are more than just "dwelling" on an idea. Obsessions are unwanted and unpleasant, and they keep coming back. A person with OCD tries to ignore, suppress or “neutralize” their obsessions by performing some sort of action.
- Obsessions are more than just “excessive worries about real-life problems.” There is a difference between “normal worrying” and unstoppable, unreasonable obsessive worrying. At some point, a person with OCD generally realizes that their worries, thoughts or rituals are “excessive or unreasonable.” People with OCD are often secretive about their obsessions because they how irrational their symptoms seem.
- Compulsions are repetitive behaviors that a person feels driven to perform, often in response to an obsession or to prevent some dreaded event from taking place. Imagine a man flicking a light switch off and on. Is he mindlessly doing this because he is bored or fidgety? Or does he have an irresistible urge to turn off and on the light switch exactly seven times, fearing that if he does not perform this action correctly, his family may be harmed in some way? OCD is a much more likely diagnosis in the latter scenario.
- True obsessions and compulsions are distressing, time-consuming (taking more than an hour per day), or significantly interfere with one’s normal routine (including schoolwork, job and relationships). Imagine a woman who counts the stairs as she walks up to her office. She arrives on time, stops counting and gets to work. A woman with OCD, on the other hand, might lose track of the counting, have to start over on the first floor, and be late to work as a result.
So if you enjoy sorting your M&M’s, spend a few minutes doing it on occasion, and if you are able to move on to other activities, then by all means eat your green ones first. But if you think your behaviors are more than just "quirks," you may want to talk to your healthcare provider.
Source: American Psychiatric Association: Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, Fourth Edition, Text Revision. Washington, DC, American Psychiatric Association, 2000.