How common is OCD?

How Common is OCD?

It is estimated that 2.3% of the world’s population is suffering from OCD. One in every one hundred children suffer from OCD.

A study by the World Health Organization identified that OCD is among, the ten leading diseases, which are associated with high levels of psychosocial impairment. OCD has become the fourth most common psychiatric disorder and the 10th leading cause of disability around the world. In the United States alone there are over three million individuals suffering from OCD (International OCD Foundation, 2018).

The OCD cycle is circular in nature, shifting from an intrusive thought (obsessions), triggering fear, doubt or anxiety, causing the need for a compulsive action to find relief from the fear and anxiety the obsession produces which re-triggers the original obsession. The cyclic problem is created because the reduction of discomfort and distress from performing the compulsion is only temporary until the obsession is experienced once again.In addition, relieving the anxiety only serves to reinforce and strengthen the original obsession.

Therefore, the original act or behavior that initially reduced distress is repeated once again to further relieve the discomfort, and becomes ritualized into a compulsion. In turn, each compulsion reinforces the obsession, which leads to further enactment of the compulsion. As a result, the vicious cycle of OCD begins.

OCD Statistics

2% of the world’s population is living with OCD

1 in 4 (25%) – Likelihood of other family members having the condition with family history of the condition –

75.8% likelihood of having another anxiety disorders, including:

• panic disorder,
• phobias,
• PTSD
• Social Anxiety / SAD
• Generalized Anxiety / GAD
• Panic / Anxiety Attacks

Estimated 156,000,000 people worldwide

OCD affects all races, ethnicities

OCD is equally spread between men and women