The document provides an overview of obsessive compulsive disorder (OCD), describing it as a psychiatric disorder characterized by intrusive thoughts and obsessions that cause anxiety, which can only be alleviated by repetitive compulsions. It notes that while everyone experiences obsessions and compulsions occasionally, OCD is diagnosed when such thoughts and behaviors occur for at least an hour daily and cause significant distress. The summary also distinguishes OCD from informal uses of the term by noting true sufferers experience great anxiety and cannot restrain compulsions.