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While I am reading other organization blogs and checking out organizing photos, I sometimes run across someone who has put a “cute caption” on an entry or image which mentions how “OCD” their organizing method is.

A lot of people throw around the term “OCD” quite casually, saying things like, “Oh, I’m just a little OCD” when someone asks them why they are so preoccupied with organizing.

But as a person with OCD, I can tell you straight up that a lot of the folks who do this have zero concept of what OCD is. And this is a serious issue, since I see a lot of search queries like, “OCD or just organized?” People worry about whether their obsessive cleaning and tidying means they have OCD.

I would say that the simplest way to explain the difference between “neat freak or OCD” is by pointing out these particular features of OCD:

• First of all, the letter frequently forgotten about when discussing OCD is the “C,” which stands for compulsive. Even so-called “pure O” OCD involves compulsion in the forms of obsessive thoughts which are “compelled” into existence. If you feel compelled to organize and clean, that might be a sign of OCD. But if you can usually shrug off a cleaning or organizing task and move on with your day (without it constantly snagging at your thoughts without your permission), that would less likely be OCD.

• OCD is an anxiety disorder. The obsessions and compulsions involved are always fear-based. Those with OCD live in terror that something will go horribly wrong if they do not act on their compulsive obsessions. Sometimes this takes the form of cleaning or organizing as a “ritual” to prevent disaster. If that does not sound familiar, you probably do not need to worry about OCD.

In a way, OCD is like an inverted mirror of one’s values. If you have OCD which manifests as obsessive cleaning and organizing, that says something about what you value—but again, it is charged with fear. If you know you value tidiness, but you do not have an irrational fear that failure to tidy will result in calamity, that is very different.

In any case, we can only hope that these casual references to OCD will go away. They show up so commonly with reference to neatness. In actuality, that is just one of a myriad ways that OCD can present itself.

A lot of people with OCD have no compulsion at all toward neatness. And most people who enjoy tidying up and organizing do not have OCD driving them to do it. It is even possible to be a neat freak who has OCD without the tidying being a symptom of the OCD at all.

Regardless, if you are concerned, you should probably do some research or consult with a healthcare professional. But if you just love being tidy, you should just enjoy what you do, and not worry too much when someone tells you, “You are so OCD!”