What is considered mild, moderate and severe OCD?

The severity of obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) is determined by how much it impairs the patient's life, explains Jerry Bubrick, PhD, with the Child Mind Institute.

Transcript

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What we're really talking about is that the level of impairment is really quite mild. It might be occupying between 1 and 3 hours collectively

00:07

of their day. [MUSIC PLAYING]

00:19

What we're talking about with severity, degrees of severity, is just that, how much it impairs in someone's life.

00:25

So if someone has mild OCD, what we're really talking about is that the level of impairment is really quite mild. It might be occupying between 1 and 3 hours collectively

00:35

of their day between combined the amount of time they're thinking about these things, and the amount of time

00:43

they're spending doing their rituals. Someone who's in the moderate category

00:50

is thinking about them a lot more and engaging in a lot more rituals and compulsions.

00:57

So their performance in school will be affected, their ability to socialize might be affected, their home life might be affected more.

01:07

And someone in the severe range is just that they're really quite unable to focus or function

01:13

in school. They're not really able to go to friends' homes, or even leave their own homes at times when it's so severe.