Do I have OCD?!

Do I have OCD?

I've been told by people I have OCD. When there was school, I was always the last one to leave my house, so I had to lock the door. I usually ended up running back home thinking I hadn't locked the door, or I had left the stove/microwave on. I checked like 3 or 4 times to make sure the flat iron was off. When I walked my brother to school, I walked him all the way there but only because I knew if I let him go alone, I would worry about it all day. I can't even clean my room without getting fustrated about it. If I see a clean shirt out, I try putting it away. But then my drawer is all messy and I feel like I can't put it away without folding every shirt in the drawer. Do I have OCD?

Yes, it definitely sounds like it. When double-checking, cleaning, washing, etc. starts to interfere with your life; if you don't double-check (or whatever it is) and you can't stop thinking about it to the point where it ruins your day, and possibly the next several days; if you think that by doing some of these things you will lessen the anxiety that you generally feel, then you very likely have OCD.

Be wary of taking anti-depressant-type drugs for this. OCD is not a depressive illness, it is anxiety-related. (That is not to say that someone with OCD can't be depressed, too.) My daughter has OCD, much worse than what yours sounds like, and she found the most helpful thing was exposure therapy, not overmedication. Try to find a psychologist who specializes in exposure therapy.

Good luck.