If you really think about it, the idea that a change in date will bring about a total mind and body transformation is pretty unrealistic. And yet, every year on New Year’s Eve, billions around the world count down with firm belief in the adage, “new year, new me.”
It can be fun to celebrate new beginnings—as arbitrary as they may be. But for many, this mindset reinforces unrealistic, and even harmful, expectations. For people with obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD), the philosophy that you can or should be able to change your life through a mix of nothing more than fervent desire and the vague, mystical power of the new year can be a recipe for stress and disappointment.
But you can help relieve some of the pressure by understanding how OCD can make an appearance in your New Year’s resolutions and expectations, and thinking about this season a little differently.
1. You feel like the New Year has to be “just right”
One of the most frustrating parts of OCD is worrying about whether and how your symptoms may emerge. In the lead-up to the new year, you might find yourself fixated on making sure that everything feels perfect or feels “just right.” This can be an expression of perfectionism OCD, experienced by almost half of people with OCD, and it can lead to a sense of unbearable discomfort when left untreated.
If you’re attending or hosting a New Year’s Eve gathering, you might already be anticipating holiday-related stressors around travel and parties. You might fear that you’ll be exposed to illness, or that sexual OCD obsessions could arise when you’re in large groups of loved ones or friends. In response, you might try to avoid others, or self-check for reactions you’re scared are inappropriate. Meanwhile, relationship OCD can make you doubt every social interaction. The idea that your New Year’s Eve celebration might go wrong, or that it doesn’t seem perfect in retrospect—especially if it feels like the culprit was your OCD—can trigger a desire to engage in compulsions to feel better.
The “just right” mindset can also apply to the entire upcoming year. As you make plans for 2026, whether they’re concrete tasks you want to cross off or simply things you hope to experience, the fear that the year could fail to meet your expectations despite your best efforts, can be overwhelming.
2. You worry you’ll contaminate the new year
What happens if the magic of the new year doesn’t take? If you count down from ten, throw glitter in the air, and watch the ball drop, only to find that your OCD is still with you in 2026, you may feel like you’ve done something wrong.
For some, the line between the old and new years might feel sharply defined. When the themes and symptoms that have caused you stress and pain bleed over that line, it can feel like more than disappointment— it can feel like an instance of emotional contamination. Emotional contamination in OCD occurs when you feel as though a certain thought or impulse has the power to “contaminate” not just the moment itself, but what comes next, including your surroundings or your life.
If you’ve told yourself that 2026 will be the year you finally live without intrusive thoughts, only to find that they’re still with you on January 1st, it can feel like the new year is tainted before it’s even started. You might feel that if the first day or week of the new year isn’t “perfect,” it will start you off on a bad note, and the entire year ahead is now at risk.
3. Your resolutions are overly rigid, or reflect your compulsions rather than your values
Lots of people make New Year’s resolutions, and there’s nothing wrong with wanting to set goals for your next season of life. But if your intentions are focused on resolving discomfort from intrusive thoughts and obsessions, you could be setting yourself up to engage in compulsions. For example, making a resolution to check the news daily could be a way to stay informed. But, if your intention is to try to be absolutely certain you are always safe, you could just be setting yourself up to engage in compulsive research. This can look like constantly scrolling for updates, triple-checking everything you read to verify that it’s from a reputable source, and doomscrolling instead of living your life because you’re afraid you’ll miss something.
Promising yourself that this year you’ll finally conquer a source of anxiety by finally “figuring it out” might feel like a good idea, but in reality, this “resolution” is often just a compulsion in disguise. Chasing certainty is a common experience for people with OCD, but it’s impossible to be 100% certain about most things in life. Making resolutions like these provides temporary relief, but the OCD cycle will keep looping between obsessions and compulsions, continuing to create anxiety.
4. You want to be your “best self” in the new year—but does that mean you’re a bad person now?
Many subtypes of OCD can create or exacerbate a fear of immorality or badness, including scrupulosity OCD, responsibility OCD, pedophilia OCD, and harm OCD. Intrusive thoughts, one of the core symptoms of OCD, are ego dystonic—which means they contradict your values and beliefs, confronting you with disturbing and upsetting ideas and urges, like the fear that you’ll stab your partner, or shout that offensive slogan you saw online last week in the middle of a family dinner. And these thoughts can, in turn, lead to feelings of intense distress and guilt—how could I even imagine doing such a thing?—even though the thoughts themselves don’t actually mean anything about you.
As you set intentions for the new year, or find yourself surrounded by conversations about self-improvement, focusing on how to be “better” can push concerns about whether you’re a bad person into overdrive.
5. You hope the magic of the new year will change your OCD symptoms
The new year can feel like a magical time. That liminal space between the old and the new seems full of possibility—so much so that you might believe it’s powerful enough to do away with your OCD entirely, without you even having to try. But OCD is stubborn and conniving, and you’ll set yourself up for success better with evidence-based treatment than you will with new year’s magic.
Exposure and response prevention (ERP) therapy, considered the most effective treatment for OCD, teaches you to confront your obsessions head-on without using compulsions to relieve feelings of distress. While time passing can indeed change how you feel, and how your OCD expresses itself, most people’s symptoms are unlikely to vanish simply because the calendar page has turned. ERP provided by a qualified and knowledgeable provider can make a meaningful difference by teaching you new ways to respond to stressful moments and triggers—so you can be fully present for the moments in life that truly matter.
New year, new tools
Transitions of all kinds can feel like precipices. They might seem auspicious and promising, or they might create feelings of fear and uncertainty—feelings that OCD feeds on. The transition to a new year is no exception, and it can easily feed the OCD cycle of obsession and compulsion. But the reality is that January 1st doesn’t hold any more power than any other date.
You can hold more power this year, though. ERP can help you break the cycle of obsessions and compulsions and gain more control over your life. You can focus on gradual change, which comes not from an arbitrary date on the calendar but from slowly learning new ways to face difficult situations and feelings, without giving into time-consuming rituals or disruptive routines. This year, what if your intention was to consider radically accepting that things can and almost definitely will go wrong (365 days of perfection is a lot to ask of anyone), and investing in tools to help you better handle them. Your OCD symptoms will likely infuriate you on more than one occasion, but they won’t define the year, and they won’t define you.
