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Currency: No date given
Relevance:  Informative facts about OCD as an anxiety disorder, as well as listing the symptoms and causes on the brain.
Authority:  John Hopkins Medicine
Accuracy:  Very accurate and informative, though I am not sure where it might have been published before; may not have.
Purpose: To inform people about the symptoms and effects if OCD on normal everyday life, as well as the certain impulsive behaviors one with this condition may have.

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What is obsessive-compulsive disorder?

What causes OCD?

What are the symptoms of OCD?

How is OCD diagnosed?

How is OCD treated?

Key points about OCD

Next steps
Tips to help you get the most from a visit to your healthcare provider:

Know the reason for your visit and what you want to happen.

Before your visit, write down questions you want answered.

Bring someone with you to help you ask questions and remember what your provider tells you.

At the visit, write down the name of a new diagnosis, and any new medicines, treatments, or tests. Also write down any new instructions your provider gives you.

Know why a new medicine or treatment is prescribed, and how it will help you. Also know what the side effects are.

Ask if your condition can be treated in other ways.

Know why a test or procedure is recommended and what the results could mean.

Know what to expect if you do not take the medicine or have the test or procedure.

If you have a follow-up appointment, write down the date, time, and purpose for that visit.

Know how you can contact your provider if you have questions.

OCD is a common condition. It causes persistent disturbing thoughts and compulsive rituals that attempt to ease anxiety.

The rituals become consuming and interrupt daily life.

Stressful events may trigger the OCD episodes or make them worse.

You may or may not have insight into the irrational thoughts or behaviors.

Medicines and therapy can help reduce the time spent in the thought patterns or compulsive behaviors. Treatment is most successful when both are used.

Your healthcare provider will figure out the best treatment based on:

How old you are

Your overall health and medical history

How sick you are

How well you can handle specific medicines, procedures, or therapies

How long the condition is expected to last

Your opinion or preference

Treatment may include:

Anti-anxiety or antidepressant medicines are often used.

Cognitive behavioral therapy can also help.

OCD is diagnosed during a physical and psychiatric exam when obsessions and compulsions:

Take up at least one hour each day

Are distressing

Interfere with daily life

Always see your healthcare provider for a diagnosis.

Obsessions are unfounded thoughts, fears, or worries. They happen often and cause great anxiety. Reasoning does not help control the obsessions. Common obsessions are:

A strong fixation with dirt or germs

Repeated doubts (for example, about having turned off the stove)

A need to have things in a very specific order

Thoughts about violence or hurting someone

Spending long periods of time touching things or counting

Fixation with order or symmetry

Persistent thoughts of awful sexual acts

Troubled by thoughts that are against personal religious beliefs

While you may know that the thoughts are unreasonable and not due to real-life problems, it's not enough to make the unwanted thoughts go away.

Compulsions are repetitive, ritualized acts. They are meant to reduce anxiety caused by the obsession(s). Examples are:

Repeated hand-washing (often 100+ times a day)

Checking and rechecking to make sure that a door is locked or that the oven is turned off for example

Following rigid rules of order, such as, putting on clothes in the same order each day, or alphabetizing the spices, and getting upset if the order becomes disrupted

Compulsive acts can become excessive, disruptive, and time-consuming. They may interfere with daily life and relationships.

People may avoid situations in which they might have to face their obsessions. Some try alcohol or drugs to calm themselves.

Experts aren't sure of the exact cause of OCD. Genetics, brain abnormalities, and the environment are thought to play a role. It often starts in the teens or early adulthood. But, it can also start in childhood. OCD affects men and women equally. It appears to run in families.

Other anxiety problems, depression, eating disorders, or substance abuse may happen with OCD.

Obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) is a common anxiety disorder. It causes unreasonable thoughts, fears, or worries. A person with OCD tries to manage these thoughts through rituals.

Frequent disturbing thoughts or images are called obsessions. They are irrational and can cause great anxiety. Reasoning doesn't help control the thoughts. Rituals or compulsions are actions that help stop or ease the obsessive thoughts.

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Tips to help you get the most from a visit to your healthcare provider: Know the reason for your visit and what you want to happen. Before your visit, write down questions you want answered. Bring someone with you to help you ask questions and remember what your provider tells you.

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Currency: copyright 2010-2016
Relevance: Discusses facts about anxiety.
Authority: Robert DuPont is listed as the founder, but there is no information about him. There is no specific author for the article. The website is an association focused on anxiety and depression.
Accuracy: Accurate, but wasn't published somewhere specific, is an online website.
Purpose: To help others understand what anxiety and depression is.

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It's a normal part of life to experience occasional anxiety.

But you may experience anxiety that is persistent, seemingly uncontrollable, and overwhelming. If it's an excessive, irrational dread of everyday situations, it can be disabling. When anxiety interferes with daily activities, you may have an anxiety disorder.

Anxiety disorders are real, serious medical conditions - just as real and serious as physical disorders such as heart disease or diabetes. Anxiety disorders are the most common and pervasive mental disorders in the United States.

The term "anxiety disorder" refers to specific psychiatric disorders that involve extreme fear or worry, and includes generalized anxiety disorder (GAD), panic disorder and panic attacks, agoraphobia, social anxiety disorder, selective mutism, separation anxiety, and specific phobias.

Obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) and posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) are closely related to anxiety disorders, which some may experience at the same time as depression.

What is Anxiety? (from ADAA's partner organization Anxiety.org) is an in-depth analysis and explanation of key anxiety disorders written by ADAA member experts.

Depression is a condition in which a person feels discouraged, sad, hopeless, unmotivated, or disinterested in life in general for more than two weeks and when the feelings interfere with daily activities. Major depression is a treatable illness that affects the way a person thinks, feels, behaves, and functions. At any point in time, 3 to 5 percent of people suffer from major depression; the lifetime risk is about 17 percent.

Facts and Statistics

Anxiety disorders are the most common psychiatric illnesses affecting children and adults. An estimated 44 million American adults suffer from anxiety disorders. Only about one-third of those suffering from an anxiety disorder receive treatment, even though the disorders are highly treatable.
Find more facts about anxiety disorders.
Read this important and helpful article " What is Anxiety?" from our partner Anxiety.org.

Videos

See what people with anxiety disorders are saying about how they manage.

Watch or download videos on how to manage and overcome stress and anxiety, including how to reduce stress, the differences between normal everyday anxiety and an anxiety disorder, how to recognize symptoms, and what to do if you have generalized anxiety disorder (GAD) or OCD.

Everyday anxiety or an anxiety disorder?

Researchers are learning that anxiety disorders run in families, and that they have a biological basis, much like allergies or diabetes and other disorders. Anxiety disorders may develop from a complex set of risk factors, including genetics, brain chemistry, personality, and life events.

Other resources

Continue to learn more about anxiety in all its forms on the free BetterHelp resource.

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It's a normal part of life to experience occasional anxiety. But you may experience anxiety that is persistent, seemingly uncontrollable, and overwhelming. If it's an excessive, irrational dread of everyday situations, it can be disabling. When anxiety interferes with daily activities, you may have an anxiety disorder.

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Currency: February 15, 2018
Relevance:  Discusses the stress teens have during school and the challenges teens have to face while having stress
Authority:  Swick, Susan D., and Michael S. Jellinek. Dr. Swick is an attending psychiatrist in the division of child psychiatry at Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston. Dr. Jellinek is professor emeritus of psychiatry and pediatrics, Harvard Medical School, Boston.
Accuracy:  Accurate, but I could not find where it may have been published.
Purpose:  To make people aware of anxiety in teens and what we may do to prevent it from becoming more serious.

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Learn to Identify the Physical Symptoms of Anxiety

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Learn to Identify the Physical Symptoms of Anxiety

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Currency: March 2018
Relevance: Discusses the symptoms and treatments associated with anxiety.
Authority: the author is Women´s Health Advisor and provides reliable information from the Weill Medical College of Cornell University.
Accuracy: Not published in any journals but the information comes from the Weill Medical College of Cornell University and it updated monthly.
Purpose: To inform others of the symptoms associated with anxiety and so they can be made aware of them.