Explaining ocd to non-havers

I don’t usually like to give people an entire spiel about my ocd and I just say I have bad anxiety.

But I realized a good comparison for explaining ocd intrusive thoughts/feelings to others , Is like when you are washing your face in the shower or bathroom and you can’t see anything. And you get that little intrusive thought that something is behind you; and even if you logically know there’s nothing your brain still goes “what if there was”. And you just HAVE to check because you start to panic and it suddenly becomes dire. But then there’s nothing even there, and you feel silly but if you start to wash your face again you know it’s just gonna happen all over again.

I think the majority of people who don’t have ocd have actually experienced that and it gives a pretty good insight on what it’s like to have that mental battle between logical thinking and illogical intrusive anxiety/panic.