“Collapse Prevention” is not an official OCD subtype. It’s a pattern I often see in clients who struggle with perfectionism and heightened feelings of responsibility.

This pattern of OCD convinces someone that it is the glue holding their life together. It creates pressure to monitor experiences, decisions, relationships, and performance in order to prevent mistakes, regret, or lost opportunities.

It often feels like a logical system because it frequently produces real results, like high achievement and external validation, but over time, it becomes exhausting and intrusive.

Common obsessions include:

• Fear of missing the best possible version of an experience

• Worry that a small mistake will ruin something important

• Fear of insurmountable regret

• Belief that relaxing will cause things to fall apart

Common compulsions include:

• Constant mental monitoring of their own and others’ experiences

• Trying to optimize decisions and outcomes

• Replaying events to see if they could have gone better

• Over-planning, correcting, or controlling outcomes

This pattern usually leads to burnout, chronic pressure, difficulty being present, and an inability to fully enjoy life, even when things go well.

It commonly shows up in neurodivergent individuals who don’t trust themselves to remain responsible without extreme amounts of pressure (especially in adults with late-diagnosed Attention-deficit Hyperactivity Disorder).

Perfectionism / “Just Right” OCD involves an intense internal sense of things feeling “off,” incomplete, or not quite correct. This pattern creates a powerful urge to fix, adjust, repeat, or perfect things until they feel “just right.”

“Just Right” OCD is unique in that its distress does not typically cause fear that something bad will happen. Instead, the discomfort comes from the feeling that things are unfinished, uneven, or wrong in a way that is intolerable but hard to explain.

It shows up in many areas of life, particularly work, relationships, parenting, routines, and everyday decisions. People often know their standards are unusually rigid, but the urge to correct things often becomes impossible to ignore.

Common obsessions include:

• Feeling that something is “off,” uneven, or incomplete

• Persistent doubt about whether something was done correctly

• Urges to redo things until they feel or look right

• Rigid internal rules about how things should be done

• Extreme discomfort when things are imperfect, asymmetrical, or unfinished

Common compulsions include:

• Repeating tasks until they feel correct or completed

• Excessive editing, checking, revising, or obsessing about using the “perfect” word

• Arranging or adjusting things until they feel or look “just right”

• Starting over instead of finishing something imperfectly

• Avoiding tasks that feel impossible to do perfectly

This pattern typically leads to procrastination, difficulty finishing projects, decision paralysis, and chronic dissatisfaction with work others see as perfectly good.

Relationship OCD (ROCD) creates persistent doubt and uncertainty about relationships. While I work with all ROCD presentations, I specialize in helping people who are dating or trying to get back into dating.

Dating inevitably involves ambiguity. Feelings change, compatibility takes time to develop (if it develops at all), and no one can truly predict how the relationship will unfold.

This can be unbearable for ROCD, which lashes out by turning normal uncertainty into a sense of urgency. People may feel intense pressure to determine whether their feelings are strong enough, whether someone is “right” or “the one,” or whether continuing or ending the relationship is a mistake.

Having personal preferences or questioning a relationship is perfectly healthy. In ROCD, it becomes a problem because it creates pressure to resolve those questions immediately.

Common obsessions include:

• Fear that you’re dating the wrong person

• Persistent worries that you don’t feel enough attraction or excitement

• Fear of wasting someone’s time or hurting them

• Worrying about missing out on someone “better”

• Feeling pressure to know exactly where the relationship is going

Common compulsions include:

• Constantly monitoring your feelings or attraction

• Mentally reviewing conversations, dates, or interactions

• Comparing your partner to others

• Repeatedly questioning whether you should stay or leave

• Monitoring your partner’s reactions and behavior

• Ending or sabotaging relationships to escape uncertainty

People often feel stuck in their heads instead of being able to get to know someone naturally, and eventually, dating starts to feel like it’s costing more than it’s worth.

Hoarding Disorder involves persistent difficulty discarding or letting go of possessions, even when items do not have clear practical value. People with Hoarding Disorder often feel emotionally attached to or have plans for their belongings, or hold onto things “just in case” they may need it later.

For many people, the problem goes beyond clutter. This pattern creates obsessive thoughts and decision paralysis around possessions, responsibility, and future loss. This is because items can feel tied to important memories, potential opportunities, or a sense of security.

Because discarding items feels risky or emotionally painful, people tend to delay decisions, hold onto things longer than originally intended, or bring new items into the home in order to feel prepared for the future, regardless of whether they have the space to safely store those items.

Common obsessions include:

• Fear of needing something later and not having it

• Feeling responsible for preserving objects or information, or being prepared for the future

• Belief that discarding something could to lead to regret or loss

• Difficulty identifying what is important or safe enough to keep

• Feeling that items symbolize memories or loved ones

• Strong emotional attachment to possessions

Common compulsions include:

• Saving items “just in case”

• Avoiding decisions about discarding objects

• Acquiring new items to feel prepared or secure

• Sorting, reorganizing, or moving items around without letting them go

• Keeping things due to guilt, responsibility, or fear of waste

• Creating plans to use or repair items that rarely come to fruition

This pattern leads to overwhelming clutter, difficulty using living spaces, social isolation, and conflict with family members or roommates.