Reports of Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (OCD) affecting under 25s in England have tripled in 10 years, NHS England data shows.
In 2023/24 it was reported that 5.7% of adults aged 16 to 24 suffered from OCD, an increase from the 1.8% in 2014.
OCD is a mental health condition affecting both adults and children, causing a person to experience obsessive thoughts and compulsive behaviours.
YoungMinds Senior Manager of Parents and Carers Service Stevie Goulding said: “Growing up today is incredibly tough.
“Many young people are experiencing multiple pressures which impact their mental health, including poverty, inequality, intense academic pressure and the online world, so it’s no wonder so many are struggling.
“These worrying figures lay bare the number of young people experiencing OCD, often without timely support or sufficient treatment.
“OCD involves distressing thoughts and compulsive behaviours driven by anxiety. Many people misunderstand OCD and think things like “everyone’s a bit OCD,” that it’s just about being tidy, neat, or perfectionistic, or that someone can simply “snap out of it”.
“But none of these things are true – young people do not choose to have OCD and they cannot just switch it off.”
The NHS defines an obsession as an unwanted and unpleasant thought, image or urge that repeatedly enters your mind. A compulsion they define as a repetitive behaviour or mental act that you feel you need to do to temporarily relieve the unpleasant feelings brought on by the obsessive thought.
The survey records OCD and common mental health disorders across all age brackets from 16+. The age group with the second highest reports of OCD was 35-44 with 3%.
Hector Andrews was diagnosed with OCD at the age of 21 but has been battling the condition his entire life.
He said: “It attacks my relationships with the people I love the most.
“I would constantly worry that I need to do this thing otherwise those people are going to die.
“I couldn’t leave the house because my mind would tell myself that it was the last time I was going to see them.
“And it got to the point where it was really, really debilitating because it meant that I wasn’t able to enjoy my life away from those people because I was constantly worried that something was going to happen when I left.”
He explained how his main trigger for OCD is not cleanliness, like most would assume, but is the worry of letting someone down and how this manifested into his career.
He said: “I refused to get a job for the longest time and I skated through unemployment because of my fear of responsibility, my fear of letting people down.
“I thought if I got a job, then I wouldn’t let myself have any room for error and no room for growth either, it’s either you’re good at something or you’re not.”
Treatment for OCD can be through talking therapies such as cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT), a method that helps people face their obsessions and overcome their compulsions.
According to the NHS website, the disorder can be caused by various different things but can be more likely to develop if family members have a history with it.
A mother to children with OCD, who has chosen to remain anonymous and will be referred to hereafter as Jenkins, said: “In my particular instance my grandfather, my mother, my brother and two of my children all have OCD so in my family’s case there is a very strong family history of OCD.
“My own research into it is that there is a genetic proclivity regarding OCD and there are certain types of OCD that I believe are more prone to being passed through genetics.
“I think it’s very interesting that my brother chose not to have children because he was worried about them being diagnosed with OCD and in actual fact, I had four children and with two of my children very early on I noticed behaviours in them that were similar behaviours to what I was able to observe in my brother when we were growing up.
“That said, if you have members of your family that have OCD and then you yourself observe their behaviours – there is an element of learned behaviour in what you observe in your other family members with OCD.”
When talking about her brother’s experience with OCD, she said: “Our school run would have to start two hours before it would for anybody else because if my brother didn’t get dressed in a certain way or have his breakfast in a certain way, or go out of the house in a certain way then he would have to go and walk around the block and start his getting ready for school again.”
The NHS England Adult Psychiatric Morbidity Survey from 2023/24 reveals that OCD is the second most common mental health condition in 16 to 24-year-olds following General Anxiety Disorder, also known as GAD, which is shown to affect 7.6%.
Between the ages of 16 and 24, OCD was more highly reported in women with 6.1% and only 4.3% of men.
Other common mental health conditions recorded are Phobias, Depressive Episodes and Panic Disorder.
Jenkins said: “I do think that the incredible pressure that is now on our young people, exposure to the internet and all the social media sites is a huge contributor to the fact that OCD is more prevalent now or more recognised.
“We’re now seeing the effects of all this – the social media, Covid and the fact that people recognise now that OCD is not just tidying up the cans in your fridge or folding your washing in a certain way – OCD is actually intrusive thoughts and the patterns of behaviour that people have to display or run through in order to almost shake those intrusive thoughts out of their head.”
The Adult Psychiatric Morbidity Survey 2023/24 was commissioned by NHS England and carried out by the National Centre for Social Research, University of Leicester, and City St George’s, University of London.
Main image by Annie Spratt on Unsplash
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