In case you missed it, Dr. Jon LaPook, chief medical correspondent for the CBS Evening News, penned an important post on the Huffington Post about OCD.

For his CBS segment, he interviewed Jeff Bell, KCBS radio broadcaster and author of “Rewind, Replay, Repeat: A Memoir of Obsessive Compulsive Disorder” and “When In Doubt, Make Belief: Life Lessons from OCD.”

In his Huffington Post piece, Dr. LaPook writes:

“It’s my OCD.” I hear that on and off from friends and patients who half-jokingly use the term to describe overly careful behavior (such as double-checking to make sure the stove is off) but don’t actually have obsessive-compulsive disorder. True OCD can be a devastating disease. Patients have intrusive, uncontrollable thoughts and severe anxiety centered around the need to perform repetitive rituals. They can be physical such as hand washing or mental such as counting. The behavior significantly interferes with normal daily activities and persists despite most patients being painfully aware that the obsessions or compulsions are not reasonable.

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