Most people turn to the Internet for information when a physical or psychological problem worries them, but people with OCD find its allures particularly irresistible. Seeking reassurance by doing research and comparing their symptoms to others’ is one of the most common compulsions.

The need to find comfort in numbers has led to a proliferation of on-line communities for “subtypes” of OCD, such as harm OCD, relationship OCD,  “pure O,” and now, one I’ve only recently discovered, “real-life” OCD. In a previous post, I discussed why breaking OCD into categories based on content is misleading and possibly even counter-therapeutic. When treating OCD, I stress the irrelevance of content. OCD often changes its focus from one theme to another but all its many manifestations share a common underlying cognitive feature: intolerance of uncertainty.

Discussions about so-called “real-life” OCD imply that obsessions about events that actually happened, rather than about future-oriented, hypothetical possibilities, are somehow more valid. Such logic has all the earmarks of an OCD trap!

Is “real-life” OCD real? Is it different from other forms of OCD? Does it require another treatent approach?

The answers are in my blog post for the Anxiety and Depression Disorders Association.