Notwithstanding medical/mental health science , and since we are all ‘layman’ wrapping our heads around the experience of addiction , I’m going to take the liberty of taking a very broad ‘meta’ view and as thought experiment suggest that OCD could have a positive sense.
OCD at least one sense , can be described as taking actions based on thinking that ‘becomes’ disintegrated from reality and or severely discrete. Locking a door is a positive action in regards personal safety, repetitive checking of the action is a feature of its own but based on a good principle, yeah? In a way we can say OCD helps keep you safe , to a point.
’Staying sober’ and being obsessive about that action seems like it could be an example of ‘using your powers for good’ and perhaps it is or could be to a point. But in the meta sense it is itself misdirected.
Being sober is the default human condition, staying sober requires literally no action. For me , and anecdotally based on the number of quitters’ stories , when I directed my ‘obsession’ to sticking to my decision to quit , was turning my focus to not putting alcohol into my body. The obsession was to compulsively check my thinking and anytime the idea of future alcohol use ‘popped up’ , I would /do dismiss that notion , obsessively.
Not being a drunk , is infinitely more desirable than the alternative, obsessing over not putting booze in my body results in me being perpetually in default mode.
I adopted this mindset by finding AVRT , great threads here on SR in the Secular recovery section. Identifying and recognizing the desire for alcohol and isolating My thinking from the influences of that desire , making a Big Plan allowed me to end my addiction, and deciding to never drink again and not change my mind is the ‘obsession’ I and millions of others use to guarantee I’ll never be addicted to alcohol again.
I live very comfortably with obsessively denying residual desire for alcohol , I never drink , even if I can sense the ‘want’ to.