OCD sufferers may be plagued by intrusive, repetitive thoughts and urges as well as unwanted and uncontrollable behaviors. These behaviors may impede one's ability to function. Behaviors may include ritualistic hand washing, an endless urge to count what's in front of you, or even simply a series of recurring negative thoughts that you can't seem to shake. OCD sufferers also often feel an unrelenting and pervasive sense of uncertainty and lack of control. Some other common behaviors associated with OCD include. Having to check everything multiple times. This includes things like checking that you have locked your car door many times, turning the lights on and off a set number of times to see that they really are off, checking that you have locked your car door, or generally repeating things over and over. People who suffer from OCD usually realize that their obsessions are irrational. An obsession with hand-washing or dirt/contamination. People suffering from this will wash their hands after touching anything they consider contaminated. Intrusive thoughts. Some people with OCD suffer from intrusive thoughts: thoughts that are inappropriate and that cause stress to the sufferer. These usually fall into the three categories of inappropriate violent thoughts, inappropriate sexual thoughts, and blasphemous religious thoughts. OCD sufferers experience anxiety and stress from their triggers, which is why they feel compelled to engage in certain behaviors. These behaviors help to temporarily relieve or reduce the anxiety that they feel, but the cycle starts over again when the relief wears off. OCD sufferers may go through the cycle of obsession, stress, and compulsion many times in a day. Trigger. A trigger can be internal or external such as a thought or experience. It may be an intrusive thought that you are contaminated, or the experience of having been robbed in the past. Interpretation. Your interpretation of the trigger is how likely, severe, or threatening you perceive the trigger to be. For the trigger to become an obsession, the person perceives the trigger to be a very real threat and that it will likely happen. Obsession/Anxiety. If the person perceives the trigger to be a real threat it will cause considerable anxiety, which over time produces and obsession with the thought or with the likelihood of the thought occurring. For example, if you have an intrusive thought of being robbed and this causes you great fear and anxiety, this thought has the ability to become an obsession. Compulsion. The compulsion is the routine or action you must perform in order to cope with the stress caused by the obsession. The compulsion grows from a need to be able to control some aspect of the environment to help you feel like you have control over the threat of the obsession. It could be checking that the lights are off five times, saying out some self-invented prayer, or washing your hands. You might find yourself arguing that the stress you suffer from as a result of having to check the lock multiple times is smaller than the stress you could go through in the event of a robbery. When many people think of OCD, they think of an extreme preoccupation with orderliness and rules. While such a tendency may be an indication of OCD, it may not be diagnosed that way unless the thoughts and behaviors associated with the preoccupation were unwanted. On the other hand, this tendency could be indicative of OCPD, which is a personality disorder characterized by high personal standards and an excessive amount of attention paid to order and discipline. Keep in mind that not everyone with OCD has a personality disorder, but there is a high degree of co morbidity between OCD and OCPD. Since many of the behaviors and thoughts related to OCD are unwanted, OCD is often associated with a much higher degree of dysfunction than OCPD. For example, behaviors associated with OCD may interfere with one's ability to make it to work on time or, in extreme cases, even leave their house. Intrusive and sometimes vague thoughts will often arise, such as "what if I forgot something important at home this morning," that could cause a debilitating amount of anxiety for the person. If an individual has had these types of behaviors and thoughts from early on in life, the individual will most likely be diagnosed with OCD instead of OCPD. In all cases of OCD, patterns will have developed in a person's thinking or behavior that have noticeable negative effects on a person's day-to-day activities. Since the range of patterns associated with OCD can be broad, OCD may be best understood as part of a spectrum of disorders rather than a single condition. Your symptoms may or may not prompt you to seek treatment, depending on whether or not these symptoms interfere with your daily life. Ask yourself whether or not a particular pattern of thoughts and/or behaviors affects your life in a negative way. If the answer is yes, then you should get help. If your OCD is mild and it does not affect your daily life, you may still want to get help to keep it from getting out of hand. For example, a minor degree of OCD could apply if you often have the urge to check the locks on you doors despite multiple confirmations that they are indeed locked. Even if you don't act on these urges, this behavior may be distracting enough to keep you from focusing on other activities in your life. The line between OCD and having an occasion irrational urge isn't always clear. You will have to determine for yourself whether or not you consider the urge to be serious enough to warrant professional help.
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One-sentence summary -- Understand the signs of OCD. Understand the obsession/stress/compulsion pattern. Know the difference between obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) and obsessive-compulsive personality disorder (OCPD). Be aware that there are many different degrees and types of OCD.

If you use a petite lace headband, you probably will not need to make any adjustments. If you use a standard-size lace headband, you might need to take it in. You can use a white headband, but you can also try to find one in a color that matches your dress or your school colors. A petite lace headband is the sort of headband worn by babies and toddlers. To take the headband in, clip apart and remove the ribbon holding it together. Turn the headband inside-out and fold one end of the lace down until the entire length matches the length the garter needs to be. Line up the fold with the other end and stitch them together using a triple stitch or narrow zigzag stitch. Turn the garter right-side-out again. Cut 10 inches (25 cm) of narrow tulle. Fold it together and attach your embellishment with glue. You should have about eight layers of folded tulle. Even at this thickness, the tulle will be light enough to prevent it from being seen at a distance. Put a small amount of hot glue in the middle of the tulle before firmly fixing your embellishment on the dot. Let dry. You could use fake pearls or gems for an embellishment, but for something more themed to homecoming, use a charm of your school mascot or school emblem. You could also attach a football jewelry charm or a small bow made with ribbon in your school colors. Hand stitch the tulle onto the center seam of the lace headband to complete your garter. Trim your tulle down before attaching it. Cut it near the embellishment, leaving just enough to sew into.
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One-sentence summary --
Adjust a lace headband to fit around the wearer's thigh. Attach an embellishment to a thin piece of tulle. Stitch the tulle and embellishment onto the garter.