I thought it would be an interesting exercise to remove myself from my normal verbosity and try to explain Pure-O (Primarily Obsessional OCD) in one paragraph. This is, of course, from my vantage point. It is not an attempt at an encyclopedic article.

I think of far more eventualities (possibilities ) than normal for every situation I encounter. I prioritize the negative possibilities at the top because my anxiety wants to work to eliminate them before anything else. OCD is a thought loop in which these thoughts never escape my brain. I do not have fleeting thoughts. That which “should” be fleeting, circles back around and around in my brain searching for a solution. That solution often never comes, or if it does (rational thought) my brain rejects it as not good enough. Nothing is ever good enough for my brain in terms of organization—and I don’t just mean objects. People and events around me should be much more organized in a fashion that lessens anxiety. I do not have compulsions, though, to even irrationally soothe my anxiety. I obsess, and that is it. I bounce from obsession to obsession, but I never leave any single subject until my brain is so full I have to get rid of the lesser-anxious thoughts. I am within this every minute of the waking day.

That.