New Delhi: The latest doom indicator is OCD. A recent report by the United Kingdom’s National Health Service shows that Obsessive-compulsive disorder among 16- to 24-year-olds has tripled in the past decade.
The British healthcare system gave 670,000 treatments for OCD last year. Adding that there has been a 47 per cent increase in referrals for OCD treatment from 17,173 annual referrals in 2017-18 to 25,221 in 2024-25. Only 5.7 per cent of 16- to 24-year-olds were recorded as having OCD in 2024, up threefold from 1.8 per cent in 2014.
The report found that women were at a higher risk, with almost 6.1 per cent having OCD, compared to 2.2 per cent of the adult population.
Nick Broughton, national director for mental health at the NHS, said that people coming forward for help is really “encouraging as everyone must know effective treatment is available.”
“OCD can have a devastating impact and is far more complex than misconceptions about being very clean or tidy. It can be really exhausting and debilitating for many people, and in the most severe untreated cases can lead to suicidal thoughts,” Broughton said.
The Times reported that experts suggest that the rise in OCD might be due to better awareness as well as a side effect of social media.
Highlighting a “genuine rise in distress,” experts said that young adults often feel constant pressure to perform well in school and in life. They further report that social media has intensified existing symptoms, with more and more people checking and rechecking.
Leigh Wallbank, chief executive of OCD Action, a UK-based charity, said that OCD is an “overwhelming experience of anxiety and distress”.
“People today are navigating constant pressure—online, academically, at work, financially, politically—and many are still feeling the effects of the pandemic,” Wallbank added.
What is OCD?
According to the DSM 5, OCD is a mental health condition characterised by obsessions and/or compulsions.
Obsessions are intrusive, unwanted thoughts, urges, or mental images that cause severe anxiety. Whereas compulsions are repetitive behaviours or mental acts that an individual feels driven to perform in response to an obsession or according to rules that must be applied rigidly.
Common stereotypes and examples include contamination, fear of harm, checking, counting, and repetition, among others. OCD is a chronic condition, but it is manageable through treatments as well as medication.
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