If a mental health issue causes anxiety, does that make it an anxiety disorder? Not necessarily. Take obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD). Often associated with extreme orderliness, OCD is far more than that. One of its hallmark symptoms is the anxiety caused by the obsessions. 

The anxiety caused by OCD can feel much like anxiety caused by, well, anything. But they are not the same. We’ll discuss some of the differences below, but for now, consider that anxiety arising from OCD obsessions leads people to partake in OCD compulsions. Anxiety outside of OCD causes distress but not compulsions. Let’s explore some other distinctions.

What Are Anxiety Disorders?

Anxiety disorders are the most common mental health condition in the world, but they come in several forms. These can include social anxiety and panic disorders, but most frequently, generalized anxiety disorder (GAD) is the culprit. As the name implies, GAD involves chronic worry about a wide range of concerns. Symptoms typically include a sense of doom or dread, irritability that can transform into angry outbursts, and physical signs like rapid heart rate, excessive sweating, and gastrointestinal issues.

How Does Anxiety Manifest in Someone With OCD?

OCD features intrusive thoughts that are often deeply distressing and concerning. A person might feel certain they forgot to turn off the oven before leaving the house. As you might imagine, this causes severe anxiety. For this reason, OCD was deemed an anxiety disorder until 2013. When research continued to show very different functionality and specific brain chemistry signs, OCD was officially designated as a separate diagnosis.

How Can Someone Know If They Have OCD or an Anxiety Disorder?

As touched on above, the key difference is the perceived need to perform compulsions to counteract anxiety-inducing obsessions. People with anxiety disorders may worry about turning off the oven, but they do not feel driven to negate that fear via compulsive rituals. Therefore, again, the primary difference lies in how the feeling of worry is addressed.

Additional differences include:

• People with anxiety most often worry about events that can actually happen. Someone with OCD  can have very unrealistic obsessions. 

• Unlike OCD, GAD usually manifests with physical symptoms.

Can You Have Both Disorders? 

As many as 9 out of 10 people with OCD also struggle with at least one other mental health condition. Often, that means an anxiety disorder of some kind. This reality is a big reason to consult a professional. To ensure effective treatment, there must be clarity as to exactly what you’re dealing with. Since anxiety is far more common than OCD, if you have both, it’s crucial to make sure that OCD does not get lost in the mix.

Differences in Treatment 

Once a mental health professional has clarified a diagnosis, a treatment plan will be designed. Talk therapy is a proven option for anxiety disorders but is generally not effective for OCD. The gold standard for OCD is exposure and response prevention (ERP). This approach slowly exposes the client to triggers and eases them into a step-by-step protocol to reduce the feeling of needing a compulsion. 

In some instances, ERP can also be effective for GAD, but more often, other modalities such as cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) and psychodynamic therapies are the go-to choices. Medication can sometimes reduce symptoms for either disorder — even if they are co-morbid.

Ask For Help

As you’ve surely discerned by now, differentiating between disorders can be a trickier process than it first appears. If you’re experiencing symptoms that could be GAD, OCD, or both, it’s not a good idea to try self-diagnosing (or shrugging them off entirely). I urge you to get in touch to learn more about the possibilities. 

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