Everyone here's done a pretty good job of explaining OCD, but like some have already mentioned it is very different for different people. I guess the best way for me to describe OCD is having a very strong urge to do something and it can drive you insane if you don't do it (at least in my experience). I was very interested to read nicole84's post because it's similar to what I go through. I'm always counting on my fingers or toes all the time. It exhausts me. I find it very hard to get through a page in a book because I find myself counting every letter and all the spaces in between. Counting is definitely one of my biggest problems (everytime I see a square/rectangle or anything with four corners, I have to count somehow inside that object to come up with the number 17... sounds confusing huh?), but the second thing that I find so unnerving is that I constantly have to touch the center of things. For example, last night when I was going to sleep I was laying in bed going crazy because I didn't touch the center of the switch/knob on my bedside lamp enough times. Thirdly, I need things to be in a specific order... it doesn't matter if there's a pile of junk on the floor (which there never is as long as I live here ) but I'll have to have that pile of junk in some sort of order, whether it's small items on bottom, large items on top or vice versa. When I was little I would wander the house all day making sure everyone's shoes were lined up in a certain order, all my stuffed animals were in their proper places, and check often to see if the toilet seat was down. Sorry for the long post, but I hope this gives you a little more insight on what it's like to live with OCD.