“I’m so OCD.” This phrase is commonly used when referring to anxious or meticulous behaviors. I hear it all the time, and it stings. It is misleading and offensive because it diminishes understanding of the devastation caused by obsessive compulsive disorder. There is a difference between being a neat freak and having obsessive compulsive disorder. Having OCD is fighting a war in your head, every day, all day. It is not being able to understand yourself; having irrational thoughts that stick in your head and refuse to leave. The “D” in OCD is there for a reason; OCD is a debilitating disorder.
“I’m so OCD” is a cultural colloquialism, prevalent in speech. BuzzFeed, a popular social news website, posted an article entitled “22 Things Only People with OCD Will Understand”. The article includes behaviors related to organization, hoarding, and cleanliness, about which people with OCD would only understand to be a misrepresentation of a crippling disorder. For example, one of the statements that was supposedly relatable to people with OCD was “your closet is organized by shade and color, because any other way would drive you insane”. I like things to be organized in a certain way, and disorganization can bother me. That does not mean I have OCD. Ignorance about OCD is widespread. The phrase “I’m so OCD” only perpetuates the trivialization of the disorder, which affects over two million Americans.
My brother is diagnosed with OCD. It affects his daily life. Walking down the street, he might have to spit because he thinks the saliva in his mouth has been contaminated by an imaginary evil. He might have to blow on the t-shirt he wears to counteract “badness” that has seeped into it. I have no idea why blowing on something would somehow make it clean again. OCD is not logical. Compulsions and counteractions are inscrutable.
OCD brains are different from normal brains. Imagine a fire alarm system. The alarms are silent unless they detect signs of a fire. Now imagine that the fire alarm system that goes off constantly, fire or no fire. In an OCD brain, the warning system is like that of the alarm system that constantly sounds. There is an ever-present fear that sticks in your head. It starts up and its menacing sound replays over and over, ceaselessly.
People have anxiety. They might rearrange things particularly or double-check things. These are fine, normal behaviors. However, these behaviors are often misattributed to OCD. The normal behaviors commonly associated with OCD are nothing like the real disorder. Washing your hands more than you need to is a lot is different from feeling as though you will die if you do not. It’s different from being terrified of your own sibling, whom you love, because a problematic part of your own mind tells you they are a danger. If you do not have an unbearable anxiety disorder, you are not “so OCD.”
This is VERY true, and a really good point. I have done research on the topic for years, it's something I know a lot about. It really gets under my skin when people use OCD as a way of describing the way they like their pencils organized, as opposed to an actual mental health disorder that is very crippling and painful to live with. I think the biggest thing to blame here is the lack of understanding as to what OCD actually is. It's not a very well known disorder like depression or anxiety (though they are stereotyped as well) and people who do know what it is tend to assume it's "like, washing your hands a lot, right?" Or "like, organizing things?" noooo it's so much more than that. Suffice to say, this is a topic that I get very passionate over, and you sum this up really well.
ReplyDeleteHoly crap, I didn't imagine I would agree with someone so much today. It bugs the crap out of me when I see things like this, people calling themselves OCD just because they organized their stuff once just because they wanted it to look pretty. Well organized argument, good points. I'm definitely with you all the way on this one.
ReplyDeleteOCD is something that understood by few, and misunderstood by many. I have heard many people jokingly self diagnose themselves with OCD because of a desire to have things a certain way, and I do not believe that this disorder should be subject for such ridicule and misunderstanding. OCD is not something that someone can control, and it is very serious. People need to start understanding that.
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