Countless times I have heard many people utilize 'OCD' as an adjective to explain why they are so neat or anal retentive. The biggest misconception is that if you are a perfectionist, you must have OCD. The exact definition of the word "perfectionist," is "a person who refuses to accept any standard short of perfection." The definition of Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder is "a mental disorder in which people have unwanted and repeated thoughts, feelings, ideas, sensations (obsessions), and behaviors that drive them to do something over and over (compulsions)." It's extremely common for a person with OCD to develop behaviors to get rid of the obsessive thoughts that they have. Being a perfectionist is NOT a diagnosed mental disorder. However, I am not saying perfectionism and OCD cannot overlap in certain cases. There are people who are diagnosed with OCD who have obsessions that cause them to develop behaviors around neatness or feel great anxiety when things aren't in order or going to plan. People with OCD can be "perfectionists," but that doesn't mean that every person who is a perfectionist has OCD. OCD is so much more than what everyone thinks that it is. It goes way beyond the desire for things to be in order and neat. It's having to turn the lights on and off a certain amount of times before going to bed, thinking the same question over and over until you ask it, getting anxious over the slightest change in plans. It's so much more than everyone makes it out to be. Everyone who has OCD has a different experience or different behaviors that go along with their compulsions. Don't limit it, because you're uneducated about the disorder. Go beyond whatever you hear, do some research. First of all, OCD is a noun. It should not be used as an adjective. It's a mental disorder, not something that should be used to explain or describe your 'quirks.' Most people will know what you are talking about when you use this phrase, but does that make it okay? Think about it. Constantly people utilize words that belong to certain communities in a completely incorrect fashion, for convenience. That doesn't make it okay for them to use those words, it just makes them lazy. There are a hundreds of thousands of words in the English dictionary and if someone chooses to use the wrong one out of convenience and ease, we should not just give them a pass. OCD is not always something that is so visible. Utilizing that word could potentially really hurt someone. You could really hurt someone and not even know it. If you catch yourself being very particular or anal retentive, don't self diagnose yourself with a mental disorder. Self diagnosing yourself perpetuates the idea that this mental disorder is not to be taken seriously. 2.3% of Americans are diagnosed with OCD and struggle every day to deal with the compulsions and obsessions that they have, they don't need you to make it harder.