By Anonymous If you ask boomers, Generation X, or maybe even Millennials, they probably will not know what OCD is. If you ask Generation Z, they probably know. Either they will have heard of OCD or will have an idea of what it is. The problem is that outside of those with OCD or medical professionals, many people do not actually know that OCD is. As such, the term is easily misused and a false, superficial, and trivialized understanding of OCD is popularized. This leaves people with OCD feeling misunderstood and their suffering overlooked. Photo: Sadie Reda, accessed here. OCD stands for obsessive compulsive disorder. Generally, there are two main elements to OCD. The first is that people with OCD have obsessive, intrusive thoughts. Often, those thoughts are mental images, urges, or fears involving bad things happening such as death, sickness, or finding oneself in a compromising, taboo situation. The obsessive element comes in because the thoughts are not easily dismissed. The obsessive thoughts are often accompanied by a compulsion, a need to perform a ritualistic behavior which can offer temporary relief from the thoughts. Such actions can include washing hands, repeating words, counting numbers out loud, or doing everyday actions in sets of four. OCD can come up in casual conversations, but when it does, especially in conversations between people unfamiliar with OCD, the illness is mischaracterized in harmful ways. These mischaracterizations can show up in off-the-cuff phrases like “everyone is a little OCD” or statements labelling people that want to be clean and organized as having OCD. The screenshots below illustrate popular examples of the perpetuation of such misinformation. The video that the screenshot is from depicts a woman organizing her fridge very neatly. All like products are together, lined up, and facing the correct way. The video from the second screenshot depicts a woman restocking her pantry, also very neatly, except with one not-neat element, for example, placing one product facing the wrong way, or filling a container up not all the way. The video from the third screenshot depicts a man cleaning the floor of his staircase very meticulously. What all of the videos have in common is that they are meant to depict people with OCD. As a result, other people believe the misinformation and will in turn characterize people who like to have things in their environment clean and meticulously organized as having OCD, as demonstrated by the comments on such videos. The comments above clearly illustrate the perpetuation of misconceptions about OCD. As wanting to be neat is relatively common and harmless, when people start thinking that having OCD is synonymous with being neat, they think that OCD must be harmless as well. While excessive cleaning and organization can be symptoms of someone with OCD, someone who engages in such behaviors does not necessarily have OCD. Spreading misinformation about what OCD is and the seriousness of the disorder makes it seem like it does not have real, devastating mental and physical impacts.
This mischaracterization of OCD results in people actually suffering from OCD being misunderstood and their suffering being minimized. While some may judge people with OCD for their compulsive behaviors and obsessive thoughts, they can turn around and use the disorder as a joke or explanation for small quirks. Additionally, the spread of misconceptions about OCD minimizes the suffering of those with it. People with OCD can experience guilt for their intrusive thoughts, resulting in self-isolation, spend substantially larger amounts of time on everyday activities, and experience physical damage resulting from their compulsions, such as skin damage from excessive hand washing. OCD can also cause people to withdraw from social situations for fear of judgment or triggering circumstances, resulting in increased feelings of isolation and larger disruptions to their life and relationships because of OCD. Ultimately, OCD is a commonly misunderstood disorder and the perpetuation of misinformation regarding it can further alienate and harm those suffering from it. National Institute of Mental Health. “Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder.” National Institute of Mental Health, September 2022. https://www.nimh.nih.gov/health/topics/obsessive-compulsive-disorder-ocd. a
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May 2024
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