Transcript: OCD: Not just even numbers and organisation

giffgaff OCD Awareness Week, 13 October 2025

There’s no recording of this talk to share, so this transcript is my script. What I said on the day may be a little different.

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Introduction

This talk wasn’t recorded, so this is written from my script and slides. What I said on the day may be a little different.

On screen: the title slide. It reads “Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder (OCD)”, with the subtitle “Not just even numbers and organisation”, and shows a teal ribbon, which is the symbol of OCD.

Hey everyone, thanks for coming. Today, we’re going to talk about Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder, or OCD.

What people think OCD is

On screen: a slide with just the heading “What is OCD?”

Now, when you hear “OCD”, what comes to mind?

On screen: “What people often think it is…”, with a list:

Only liking even numbers
Washing your hands a lot
Keeping a tidy desk
Being super organised

Below it: “These can be compulsions that arise from having OCD; however, these are not the root issue or the extent of how the condition affects people.”

Maybe someone who likes things really clean, or who’s super organised? You might hear people say things like, “That messy shelf won’t do my OCD any good”. While those ideas are common, they don’t really capture what it’s like to live with OCD. It’s so much more than just hand-washing and checking light switches.

What OCD actually is

On screen: “What it actually is…”, with three points:

OCD is a mental health condition characterised by unwanted, intrusive thoughts (obsessions).
The need to complete repetitive, time-consuming behaviours or rituals (compulsions), which are performed to temporarily relieve the obsession.
This cycle can cause the affected person anxiety and extreme discomfort and severely disrupt daily life.

So, let’s break down what it really is.

At its core, OCD is a cycle. It’s not a personality quirk; it’s a mental health condition that traps people in a loop of obsessions and compulsions.

The OCD cycle

On screen: “The OCD Cycle”, with a diagram. The cycle loops through obsession, anxiety, compulsion and temporary relief, before starting again.

The loop starts with an obsession. This is an unwanted, intrusive thought, image, or urge that pops into your head and causes a ton of anxiety.

Next is anxiety. This isn’t just regular worry. It’s intense distress and a feeling that something terrible will happen if you don’t do something right now.

To get rid of that anxiety, you perform a compulsion. This is a repetitive behaviour or a mental act. You feel driven to do it, even if you know it doesn’t make logical sense.

Doing the compulsion brings a brief sense of relief. But the relief doesn’t last. The obsession comes back, and the cycle starts all over again.

This cycle is incredibly draining, often dominating a person’s day and severely impacting their work, relationships, and overall quality of life.

Common themes

So, what do these obsessions and compulsions actually look like? They can be about almost anything, but there are some common themes.

Some obsessions and compulsions are purely thought-based. For instance:

Contamination: A fear of germs, dirt, or getting sick.
Harm: Terrifying thoughts about hurting yourself or someone else, even though you’d never want to.
Perfectionism: An intense need for things to be perfectly symmetrical, ordered, or “just right”.
Taboo thoughts: Distressing sexual, religious, or violent thoughts that go against your values.
Doubt: A persistent feeling that you’ve left something undone, like locking the door or turning off the stove.

Other obsessions and compulsions are action-based, such as:

Washing and cleaning: Washing hands until they’re raw, or excessively cleaning the house.
Checking: Repeatedly checking that doors are locked, appliances are off, or that you haven’t made a mistake.
Ordering and arranging: Needing to arrange objects in a specific, precise way.
Mental acts: This is a big one that often gets missed. Sometimes the compulsions are invisible. Things like silently repeating a “safe” word, counting, or praying to neutralise a bad thought.
Seeking reassurance: Constantly asking others, “Are you sure that was okay?” or “Is everything alright?”

When compulsions are purely mental and not visible to others, this is sometimes called “Pure O”, which stands for “Purely Obsessional”. The person is still performing compulsions; they’re just doing them in their head.

Treatment

The good news is that OCD is treatable. It’s not about “just stopping”. That doesn’t work. Instead, treatment focuses on breaking the cycle.

The most common type of therapy for OCD is a type of Cognitive Behavioural Therapy called Exposure and Response Prevention. It sounds intense, but it’s been found to be incredibly effective. The goal is to gradually face the obsessional fears (the exposure) without doing the compulsion (the response prevention). This teaches the brain that the bad thing you’re afraid of doesn’t actually happen, and the anxiety will eventually fade on its own.

A type of antidepressant called selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs) can also be very helpful in reducing the intensity of the obsessions and compulsions.

For many people, a combination of therapy and medication works best.

Real-life examples

Let’s move away from the definitions and talk about some real-life examples to show how this can play out.

Imagine someone with a fear of contamination. They might need to wear gloves to take the rubbish bins out. To people without OCD, it’s a simple chore. To someone with OCD, wearing gloves could save them half an hour of intense, painful hand-washing afterwards.

Here’s another one: checking. We all double-check things. But for someone with OCD, it’s different. They might check that the stove is off, the lights are off, and the fridge is closed. Maybe one time the fridge door didn’t shut properly, and all the food was ruined. That one event can fuel a compulsion for years.

Locking the front door

Let me give you an example of how the OCD brain works. Think about locking your front door.

You’re leaving for work. You lock the door. You might jiggle the handle to make sure it’s locked. You know it’s locked. You get in your car to drive to work. You’re 15 miles down the motorway, and the thought hits you: “Is the door locked?”

A person without OCD would think, “Yeah, of course, I remember doing it.”

But the OCD brain says, “Yes, but did you really? Was that today, or was that a memory from yesterday? You pulled the handle, but maybe you actually pushed it open in the process.”

The doubt is so powerful and the anxiety is so overwhelming that you turn the car around. You drive 15 miles back home, just to see that the door is, of course, locked, exactly as you left it. Now you have to drive to work, and you’re an hour late by the time you get there.

And imagine if that thought hit you on the way to the airport for a two-week holiday. You wouldn’t be able to stop thinking about it until you got back.

That’s the reality of OCD: it’s a constant, exhausting battle with your own mind. So, next time you hear someone mention OCD, hopefully, you’ll have a better understanding of the challenging cycle they might be facing.

How we talk about OCD

On screen: “Trivialisation”. It reads: “You have probably heard (or said yourself) one of the following phrases said casually before:”

“I had to do that because of my OCD”
“I’m a little bit OCD like that”
“I wish I had OCD, my house would be so clean and tidy”

Below it: “It’s okay if you’ve said this before, but these statements can have a big impact on someone suffering and cause hidden disruption or turmoil. Please think before you make a statement like this, and ask yourself… Would I claim to have, or say something this trivial about, other mental health conditions?”

So, after hearing all that, I want to circle back to something I mentioned at the start: the way we talk about OCD.

We’ve all heard it. Someone arranges their books by colour and says, “Sorry, I’m just a bit OCD like that.” They’re usually just trying to say they’re neat or particular, and they don’t mean any harm.

But here’s the impact of that phrase on someone who actually has OCD:

It trivialises the disorder. It takes a mental illness and turns it into a cute personality quirk. It completely ignores the “O” in OCD: the terrifying, intrusive obsessions that fuel the compulsions. Being tidy is a preference; having to scrub your hands repeatedly because of an obsessive fear of contamination is a disorder.
It minimises real suffering. Imagine going through that front-door scenario (the intense panic, the doubt, driving all the way home) and then hearing someone compare that torment to liking a clean kitchen. It can feel incredibly invalidating and upsetting, as if your struggle is being misunderstood and dismissed.
It spreads misinformation. Using “OCD” as a synonym for “organised” reinforces the stereotype that it’s all about neatness. This makes it much harder for people with less visible forms of OCD (like those with purely mental compulsions) to be recognised and get the help they need.

So, the takeaway is to just be a little more mindful. OCD isn’t an adjective. It’s a real and painful condition. Using words like “organised”, “particular”, or “neat” is more accurate and doesn’t unintentionally hurt the people who are fighting this battle every day.

Example video

On screen: a content warning. It reads: “WARNING: The linked video is intense and dramatic from start to finish, and depicts someone in OCD crisis. It may be triggering, or difficult to watch. If you decide to watch it, please ensure that you allow yourself time after to decompress. Remember that you can pause, or stop watching, at any time. If you need to talk about it afterwards, we are here to support you, so please don’t hesitate to send a private message.” Below it is the text “Example video”.

On screen: a link to the short film “O.C.D.”, on YouTube (external site), written by Conor Patrick Walsh and directed by Luca Pizzoleo. The film wasn’t played during the talk. It was there for people to watch in their own time.

On screen: “A lot just happened, let’s summarise it…”, with a list:

Owen’s obsession is to re-organise the freezer and make things “right”.
After resisting the urge to organise the freezer, the OCD voice (Steven Ogg) appears to repeatedly question the decision (this voice will not go away).
Owen’s brain starts to race or spiral, creating increasingly ridiculous scenarios as a direct result of things not being “right”.
He has a false memory regarding an offensive photograph that he never took.
He knows this photo doesn’t exist, yet he can’t trust his own memory.
This distress then spreads to the thought that everyone has seen this somehow, and they hate him and want to hurt him because of it.
He starts to believe that his partner and home are in danger, and even believes that his partner has died.
He believes that armed robbers have stormed the store, and, recognising him from the offensive photograph (which doesn’t exist), want to kill him.

Getting help

On screen: a slide with just the heading “Getting help”.

On screen: “Diagnosis (spotting the signs)”. It reads: “OCD symptoms can start at any age, and can be triggered by specific events or infections:”

OCD most commonly starts between the ages of 10 and 21.
Signs can be spotted in children as young as 6.
Children may not be able to understand that their behaviour or rituals are a result of OCD.
It’s important for parents and teachers to help spot these signs and seek help.
It often develops slightly later in females.
OCD can also begin or worsen during pregnancy or postpartum.
Usually symptoms would not develop after the age of 35, but can in rare cases.

On screen: “Diagnosis (where to start)”. It reads: “There are a few options for obtaining a diagnosis if you believe that you, or a dependant, may suffer with the condition:”

Speak to your general practitioner (GP). Not all GPs are equipped for this type of diagnosis or treatment and may refer or ask you to refer yourself (see below).
Refer yourself to your local National Health Service (NHS) Talking Therapy (external site). These services will often not be able to diagnose officially, but can confirm symptoms and arrange support.
Seek private diagnosis from a licensed psychiatrist. A psychiatrist will be able to officially diagnose the condition.

On screen: “Diagnosis (how)”. It reads: “Depending on the route you take, diagnosis may vary. Common factors would include:”

Having a pre-assessment with a trained mental health practitioner. This will usually be an informal chat to discuss symptoms and confirm that this fits OCD criteria.
Completing some pre-assessment evaluations or tests (see next slide).
Having a formal discussion with a licensed psychiatrist (or similar). This person will use a combination of assessments and your lived experience to diagnose.

On screen: “OCI & OCI-R Tests”, about the Obsessive Compulsive Inventory (OCI) and its shorter, revised version (OCI-R). It reads:

The most common OCD-specific test seen in the UK is the Obsessive Compulsive Inventory (OCI) or OCI-R (shorter version).
This is a set of 42 (or 18 for the OCI-R) questions which are scored on a scale of 0 to 4.
The results usually give an overall score (likelihood of having OCD and the severity) as well as a breakdown per category (to help identify themes).
If you’d like to take an online OCI-R test, you can find one here. The words “find one here” link to the online OCI-R test, which is in the list of links at the end.

On screen: “Support and management”. It reads: “OCD cannot be cured, but can be managed for the duration of a person’s life. The most common management techniques:”

Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT): Low-intensity therapy designed to help target obsessions or triggers and teach individuals the techniques to manage these on a daily basis.
Exposure and Response Prevention (ERP) therapy: A more intense type of CBT therapy that aims to treat obsessions by exposing the individual to them, and building comfort or relief over time.
Medication: SSRIs (also used for depression) are the most common medication provided to help manage OCD, usually as a short-term measure.

On screen: “Contacts and useful links”, with a list of links:

Then “Recommended books”:

Because We Are Bad: OCD and a Girl Lost in Thought, by Lily Bailey
When I See Blue: An Inspiring Story of OCD, Friendship and Bravery, by Lily Bailey
Scorpions, a memoir, by Tuppence Middleton
The Man Who Couldn’t Stop, by David Adam

Questions

Thanks for listening and for your attention today.

Before we move to questions, I want to emphasise that everything we’ve spoken about isn’t just abstract theory. OCD is a real condition that affects people all around us, including some of our own colleagues here at giffgaff. This makes it a really important topic for us to understand with empathy and support.

So, with that in mind, I’d love to open it up to any questions you might have. I’ll do my best to answer everything I can. If there’s a question where I don’t have the answer, some of our colleagues with lived experience have kindly offered to privately message me the answer if they know it and feel comfortable sharing.

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