“Felt Sense” OCD
When people think about OCD, they often imagine someone experiencing a frightening thought and subsequently performing a compulsion to prevent something bad from happening. However, OCD doesn’t always work like this. Sometimes, instead of a specific intrusive thought or fear, we feel an uncomfortable sense that something simply isn’t right. I sometimes refer to this as “just right” OCD, or OCD involving feelings of incompleteness or wrongness. It’s an important aspect of OCD that can be overlooked or misunderstood, particularly when the person struggles to explain why they feel compelled to do something.
What does “felt sense” OCD feel like?
People often describe an uncomfortable sensation that something is wrong, uneven, unbalanced, incomplete or somehow not quite right. There may be no clear explanation for this feeling and no specific feared consequence if we leave things as they are. Instead, there’s an overwhelming urge to correct the situation until it feels right. It can be a little like having an itch that needs to be scratched. For example, we might feel that an object needs to be positioned in a particular way, that an action needs to be repeated, or that something needs to happen under exactly the right conditions. Even when we know logically that there’s nothing wrong, the feeling can be difficult to ignore.
Common examples of “felt sense” OCD
These experiences can affect almost any aspect of daily life. For example:
Positioning objects: needing items to face a particular direction, remain separated or be arranged in a specific way.
Symmetry and balance: needing actions to be performed equally on both sides of the body or objects to be arranged symmetrically.
Repeating actions: walking through a doorway, touching something, or repeating a movement until it feels right.
Washing or cleaning: needing to wash our hands in a particular way, not necessarily because of contamination fears, but because the process doesn’t feel complete.
Touching or tapping: needing to touch objects a certain number of times or in a particular sequence.
Making decisions: feeling unable to buy something, send a message or complete an action unless the circumstances feel right.
Thoughts and feelings: needing to have a positive thought or feeling while completing an action, or repeating something because an unwanted thought occurred at the wrong moment. For example, someone might buy an item while experiencing an intrusive negative thought and subsequently feel that the purchase has somehow been spoiled. They may feel compelled to return the item, repeat the purchase or perform a mental ritual to correct the uncomfortable feeling.
The key point is that the compulsion often stems from the need to resolve the feeling itself, rather than to prevent a clearly identifiable danger.
Is “felt sense” OCD the same as perfectionism?
Not quite, although the two can overlap. Perfectionism generally involves striving to meet a particular standard or achieve a specific outcome. For example, someone might repeatedly edit a piece of work because they want it to be excellent or are worried about making mistakes. With ‘Just Right’ OCD, the focus is often less on the objective quality of the outcome and more on how something feels. A person might recognise that an object is positioned perfectly well, or that an action has been completed correctly, yet still experience an overwhelming sense that something is wrong. This distinction matters because trying to make something objectively perfect may not resolve the uncomfortable sensation. Instead, the person can become trapped in repeated attempts to achieve a feeling of rightness that remains frustratingly elusive.
How does “felt sense” OCD maintain itself?
As with other forms of OCD, compulsions can provide temporary relief. For example, we might feel that an object is positioned incorrectly and adjust it until the discomfort subsides. However, by repeatedly responding to this feeling, we can inadvertently reinforce the belief that it needs to be corrected. Over time, we become increasingly sensitive to these sensations and increasingly reliant on compulsions to resolve them. Sometimes the relief lasts only a few moments before another feeling of wrongness appears. This can make even relatively simple everyday activities surprisingly time-consuming and exhausting.
Can CBT help with “felt sense” OCD?
Yes. CBT, especially Exposure and Response Prevention (ERP), can be particularly helpful. Treatment involves learning to recognise these uncomfortable feelings and gradually reducing the compulsive responses that maintain them. For example, this might involve deliberately leaving something feeling slightly wrong, resisting the urge to repeat an action, or completing an activity without waiting for the ideal feeling or mental state. The aim isn’t necessarily to make everything feel right. It’s about becoming more comfortable letting things feel wrong without needing to correct them. Over time, this can help reduce the importance of these sensations and the control they have over our behaviour.