Emily DiNuzzo reports accounts of individuals with OCD and Pure O.

Samantha Jean describes “I remember one of my therapists said you might not always be afraid of germs but [OCD] will always be there and it’ll come back in different ways,” Jean says. “The obsessions don’t always stay the same.”

Someone with Pure O experiences obsessive, unwanted ideas and performs compulsions or rituals as a result. David Austern, PsyD, clinical instructor of psychiatry at NYU Langone Health, notes that the term Pure O isn’t often used in the medical community anymore and could be a bit misleading. That’s mainly because treatment for Pure O and OCD is the same. One distinction for sufferers, though, is that with Pure O the compulsion and or ritual is a mental response that isn’t visible (unlike Jean’s hand washing).