You likely know what OCD stands for, but many people don't know what having obsessive-compulsive disorder actually means.

For therapists like Erin Venker, she often feels like OCD is misunderstood.

"OCD is so debilitating, it's absolute torture, it's psychological hell so I don't think people realize the gravity, how serious it could be and how much people suffer from it," Venker said.

She started the OCD and Anxiety Center of Minnesota for people like Alison Dotson, who described her OCD as "like having thoughts you never wanted to have."

"And the more you try and push them away the stronger they get," she added.

Dotson said it started with being afraid she would burn in a fire, or that she had cancer.

"I thought I had everything you could possibly have," she said.

The OCD diagnosi

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