OCD Test — Free 12-Item Obsessive-Compulsive Self-Check

Obsessive-Compulsive (OCD) uses 12 items to look at two things together. The first is the type of symptom: washing because of contamination worries, checking locks or the gas, arranging things until they feel just right, unpleasant thoughts or images that are hard to shake off, counting or repeating phrases in your head, being unable to throw things away, re-reading finished work again and again, and asking the same question to get reassurance. The second is how much weight these symptoms put on your life.

That weight is checked through whether you avoid places or situations because of the symptoms, whether they take up 1 hour or more a day in total, whether you end up repeating them despite trying to stop because the anxiety builds, and whether they interfere with work, study or relationships. For each item you choose, for the past two weeks, never (0), several days (1), more than half the days (2) or nearly every day (3); the 12 answers add up to 0 to 36. Soundary built the items itself with reference to the DSM-5 obsessive-compulsive symptom dimensions, and it usually takes about three minutes.

The total falls into 0–9 normal range, 10–17 mild, 18–26 moderate and 27–36 severe. These bands are provisional, based on the average frequency per item, that is, whether the average goes beyond several days (1) or more than half the days (2), and because the check has not yet been clinically validated they are for reference. Soundary reports a single total rather than separate subscale scores, so looking at which items were high on the results screen helps you see whether your symptoms lean towards checking, ordering or intrusive thoughts.

The last three items, about time, difficulty stopping and interference with daily life, deserve special attention. Even if you endorsed only a few symptom types, high answers here may mean that daily life has already become quite heavy. Repetitive behaviors ease anxiety in the moment but tend to keep the symptoms going in the long run. Scores tend to rise during stressful periods, so make a note of what was going on at the time. This result is screening information, not a diagnosis.

DSM-5 describes obsessive-compulsive disorder through obsessions, unwanted thoughts or urges that keep coming back, and compulsions, acts repeated to reduce the anxiety those thoughts cause. Because the content differs from person to person, symptoms are often grouped into dimensions such as contamination, checking, symmetry and ordering, and intrusive thoughts, while difficulty discarding things is also treated as a separate related condition. Soundary developed its 12 items to cover these dimensions evenly; they are not taken from any particular standardized scale.

Obsessive-compulsive symptoms rise and fall with stress, so retaking the check every few weeks to follow the trend is a good idea. If you save your results on Soundary, you can compare them side by side with your previous ones. If you keep landing in the moderate range or above, or repetitive behaviors have noticeably narrowed your life, talking to a mental health professional is recommended. There are well-established treatments for these symptoms, such as cognitive behavioral therapy including exposure and response prevention, so getting help brings you closer to recovery than enduring it alone.