OCD Severity Test
Look at how much unwanted thoughts and rituals have taken from your past week, with separate views of obsessions and compulsions. This original adult self-check is not the Y-BOCS; receive an instant educational result and an optional PDF copy.
OCD Severity Test is a free, confidential 10-question self-assessment, original items · OCD severity structure. It takes about 5 minutes, runs entirely in your browser, and gives you a plain-language score across 4 interpretation bands plus an optional in-depth report. It is an educational screening, not a diagnosis.
The burden of the pattern, beyond its theme
The content of an intrusive thought does not tell you how much someone is struggling. This questionnaire focuses on time, interference, distress, resistance, and control.
The load from obsessions
Five original statements explore the space unwanted, recurring thoughts take up in your week. They separate disruption from distress, because someone can appear productive while spending considerable effort managing an internal struggle.
The load from compulsions
Five statements address repeated actions or mental rituals performed to reduce discomfort or gain certainty. Include silent reviewing and reassurance seeking where they function as rituals, rather than counting only visible checking or washing.
A useful distinction
The two area scores help you describe what is costly right now. They are our educational groupings, not validated subscales, and do not identify an OCD subtype or tell you whether a particular thought is dangerous.
| Feature | Typical free quiz | Psychology.com |
|---|---|---|
| Instrument identity | May use an instrument name without clarifying its source | Original self-check, explicitly not the Y-BOCS |
| Question focus | May focus mainly on unusual thought content | Weekly burden across five named dimensions |
| Mental rituals | May count only visible behavior | Instructions include internal rituals |
| Breakdown | May provide only one label | Our two educational groupings, five items each |
| Cutoffs | May borrow clinical score labels | Educational quarters, no Y-BOCS cutoffs |
| Next action | May encourage repeated reassurance checks | Functional examples and an OCD-informed assessment |
How scoring works
Answers are scored 0–40 in total. Your result falls into one of 4 bands:
| Score | Band | What it suggests |
|---|---|---|
| 0–9 | Limited reported burden | Few of these difficulties were prominent in the past week. |
| 10–19 | Noticeable reported burden | Thoughts or rituals appear to be asking for some of your time and attention. |
| 20–29 | Substantial reported burden | Several aspects of thoughts or rituals may be interfering with your week. |
| 30–40 | Extensive reported burden | Your answers point to a heavy weekly load that merits professional support. |
Methodology & sources
The clinical Yale-Brown Obsessive Compulsive Scale, developed by Goodman and colleagues, rates the severity of obsessions and compulsions rather than their particular themes. This page is not the Y-BOCS. We use its broad severity structure as a conceptual reference and wrote ten new statements and a shared response scale. Items 1 to 5 concern obsessions and items 6 to 10 concern compulsions. Within each group, the order is time occupied, interference, distress, resistance, and degree of control. Our resistance items ask about difficulty stepping back from engagement or rituals; they do not reproduce the original resistance questions. This reframing is deliberate and makes the scores non-equivalent to the clinical instrument.
Adults answer for the past week, rating each statement from 0 to 4 for a total of 0 to 40. Each of our two educational groupings contributes 0 to 20; neither is a validated subscale of this original questionnaire. There are no reversed items. Bands of 0 to 9, 10 to 19, 20 to 29, and 30 to 40 divide the possible score into approximate quarters and are educational, not clinical cutoffs or published Y-BOCS severity categories. The questionnaire has not been validated, cannot establish OCD, and is unsuitable for comparing treatment outcomes with Y-BOCS studies. Acceptance of intrusive thoughts during therapy must not be confused with losing control. Discuss interpretation with an OCD-informed clinician, especially during exposure and response prevention.
References
- Goodman WK, Price LH, Rasmussen SA, et al. (1989). The Yale-Brown Obsessive Compulsive Scale. I. Development, use, and reliability. Archives of General Psychiatry, 46(11), 1006–1011. doi.org/10.1001/archpsyc.1989.01810110048007
- Stanford Medicine, Obsessive-Compulsive and Related Disorders. Assessment and use of the Y-BOCS. med.stanford.edu/ocd/about/diagnosis.html
- National Institute of Mental Health. Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder. nimh.nih.gov/health/topics/obsessive-compulsive-disorder-ocd
Cite this source
Psychology.com. (2026, September 13). OCD Severity Test. Psychology.com. https://psychology.com/tests/ocd-severity
OCD Severity Test FAQ
Is this the Y-BOCS or Yale Brown Obsessive Compulsive Scale?
No. The Y-BOCS is an established clinician-administered severity measure that uses an interview, specific questions, and rating guidance. This page uses original wording informed by its broad structure. Sharing ten items and a 0 to 40 range does not make the measures interchangeable. Ask a clinician to administer the actual Y-BOCS if you need a clinical baseline or treatment monitoring.
How is this different from the OCI-R OCD test?
Our <a href="/tests/ocd">OCD test</a> uses the OCI-R to explore symptom patterns. This page asks how much thoughts and rituals have affected your past week, regardless of theme. You do not need to complete both to justify getting help. One concrete example of missed work, delayed sleep, or repeated reassurance can be more useful in an appointment than another score.
Do mental rituals count as compulsions?
Yes, when they are repeated to neutralize an intrusive thought or obtain certainty. Silent reviewing, mentally checking a memory, or repeating a phrase can serve this function. Ordinary reflection is different. Our <a href="/tests/pure-o">Pure O test</a> discusses patterns that may be less visible, but neither test can decide whether any individual action is a compulsion.
Does resisting thoughts more strongly mean I am doing better?
Not necessarily. Trying to force a thought away can become part of the struggle. Exposure and response prevention, or ERP, includes allowing uncertainty without completing a ritual. The resistance questions here concern difficulty stepping back, not how hard you suppress thoughts. If you are practicing ERP, ask your therapist how your answers fit the approach you are learning.
Can this tell me how bad my OCD is?
It summarizes the burden you report, but it cannot confirm OCD or assign its clinical severity. A low total can hide one intensely disruptive ritual, while a high total can overlap with other difficulties. Theme-specific pages include <a href="/tests/harm-ocd">Harm OCD</a> and <a href="/tests/rocd">Relationship OCD</a>. Use these for education rather than repeatedly checking for certainty.
Should I retake it whenever an intrusive thought appears?
No. Repeated scoring can become another way of seeking reassurance. If you choose to track a pattern, agree on a reasonable interval with your clinician and look at everyday functioning too. Note whether you can leave home, finish tasks, or spend time with someone without ritual interruptions. You can seek support without waiting for a score to rise.
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