OCD vs. GAD

Do you have GAD Generalized Anxiety Disorder or OCD Obsessive Compulsive Disorder? Have you wondered about the difference between GAD and OCD?

People with GAD and OCD have worries and anxiety and rumination and catastrophize and run through what-if scenarios. And they also are over-thinkers and have difficulty tolerating doubt and uncertainty.

People with OCD may do physical compulsions and rituals like washing, blinking, checking door handles, tapping, re-doing things to get a just-right feeling, etc. They may also have mental compulsions like ruminating, analyzing, replaying things, repeating things, counting, and neutralizing bad thoughts with good thoughts. The purpose of the compulsions is to self-soothe, and lower their anxiety and discomfort, although the behaviors actually feed the OCD cycle. People with GAD typically do not perform rituals and compulsions like in people with OCD, but they can have some of those behaviors. They often have avoidance behaviors and ruminate and do other behaviors that may maintain their anxiety cycle as well. It is important to know whether you are experiencing GAD or OCD because this ultimately affects your treatment. A trained therapist is going to interview you to review your symptoms and history and include assessments like Yale-Brown obsessive-compulsive scale and the DASS and other measures before giving a diagnosis. And, to make things a little more complicated, it is possible to have both conditions.  

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