You joke with your friends about how you are OCD when it comes to organizing your kitchen. You laughed at Jack Nicholson’s character Melvin Udall in As Good As It Gets while he compulsively stepped over the cracks in the sidewalk. And maybe you wondered recently how Adrian Monk on the TV series Monk is going to cope with his OCD eccentricities now that his psychiatrist has died (don't worry, Hector Elizondo is replacing Stanley Kamel as Monk's new psychiatrist). However, Obsessive Compulsive Disorder is a serious mental health disorder that can hamper and even ruin the lives of the people who have it.

What is Obsessive Compulsive Disorder?
Imagine being plagued by obsessive thoughts or images, such as your boyfriend or you getting in a bloody car accident. Imagine compulsively getting up every night, every hour or more, to check on your kids because you want to make sure they haven’t been kidnapped.

Dr. Mia Gregor, clinical psychologist at The Center for Personal Development in Chicago, Illinois says “Individuals with OCD have obsessions and compulsions that cause significant distress and impairment in their daily functioning. This means that they have recurring thoughts (or obsessions) that are exaggerated or unrealistic. For example, fears of contamination or fears that they will cause some sort of disaster.”

Do you have it? Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (OCD) is no joke | Sheknows.com