OCD is a disorder characterized by the presence of obsessions and/or compulsions. Obsessions are thoughts and urges that you don’t like, but continue to come back. Compulsion are the behaviors you do (mental or physical) to lessen the intensity of an obsessive thought. Compulsion are not always logically linked to an obsessive thought like washing your hands to prevent germs.

“Being OCD” is an inaccurate colloquialism that means being a perfectionist or extremely clean. This is not an accurate description of OCD, as OCD has many subtypes that have no relation to cleanliness and being a perfectionist is often unrelated to obsessive thoughts.