If you don’t fully understand what OCD is or entails, I appreciate you reading this and taking the time to educate yourself! It really helps the people around you who might be struggling with this illness in secret.
Even though there has been an encouraging increase in openness surrounding mental health and illnesses, misconceptions and the invalidation of OCD continue to frustrate me. I have been diagnosed with OCD for around half a year, and have been in recovery ever since. While I hope to be able to share my journey and hopefully support anyone with similar experiences through that, I want to make sure OCD is well understood and not thrown around as an adjective or even a personality trait!
I apologise for having procrastinated writing this article - it is definitely nerve-wracking to discuss an illness some people deem “crazy” or “illogical”, but I strongly believe that even one person having a better grasp of what the disorder means for those suffering from it truly helps people with OCD, both in breaking the stigma/fear of speaking up about it and realising their self-worth is not reflected in their illness.
Personally, I sense that there is a double standard in mental health. There seems to be a very reinforced line between which illnesses are foolishly considered “glamorous”, “romantic”, or, worse, “quirky”, and which illnesses are “crazy” and “absurd”. Illnesses such as depression or anxiety are inflated and warped through the workings of the media, while others such as OCD are whispered in hushed tones, or are the punchline to a joke. It is this society-taught (yes, we’re whipping out the s word) separation of mental illnesses which contributes to the stigma of illnesses falling in the latter category (not to mention the wrong portrayal of mental illnesses). All mental illnesses deserve to be talked about because all of them are equally valid and equally real.
I hope my lengthy ramble so far hasn’t bored you too much! Anyway, this was why I decided to write a mostly educational piece on OCD with bits of my personal experience/opinions mixed in.
What is OCD?
“I’m so OCD, <insert something probably related to having neat handwriting or whatever>” - says So Many People as they giggle violently at their comedic, original, quirky joke
OCD in full stands for obsessive compulsive disorder. I need to highlight that this is a serious disorder that causes impairment in a person’s life and brings about extreme distress to a person, thus wearing them down mentally. OCD is a type of anxiety disorder, and as the name suggests, includes obsessions and compulsions. Put simply, obsessions are recurring unwanted thoughts (intrusive thoughts) that evoke strong emotions such as anxiety, fear, disgust and so on. In order to neutralise this intense anxiety, rigid behaviours - compulsions - are performed, or the person tries extremely hard to distract themselves. Compulsions can be mental and/or physical acts, and for some people (like me) they can resemble long, drawn-out rituals that are time-consuming, let alone energy-consuming!
This is essentially the underlying vicious cycle of the disorder: (although this is a very simplistic framework, it hopefully provides fundamental understanding to the illness) a person has intrusive thoughts that create such intense anxiety that they relieve it through rigid behaviours to gain temporary relief. Although OCD may seem to be rooted in irrationality, this does not reflect on the person’s sensibility or rationality as a whole - it is merely a symptom of the illness that manifests itself during intrusive thoughts. Many sufferers are able to tell their obsessions/compulsions are not realistic, yet it is the illness that convinces them otherwise. It is a constant battle in your head, unrelenting and exhausting. From my experience, the best way I can describe it is trying to argue against yourself - trying to argue against what you deem to be the “truth”, yet you know it is the complete opposite. It definitely sounds complicated enough, which reflects how the disorder can wear you down mentally and even emotionally. This is exactly why flippant comments thrown around invalidating the experiences of those with OCD are extremely unhelpful and discouraging, so please be kind and patient with those around you who have OCD!
In general, OCD is considered to have 4 types: contamination, perfection, doubt and harm and forbidden thoughts. Before I cover these briefly, it is also worth mentioning that having intrusive thoughts does not necessarily translate to having OCD. In OCD, these thoughts (or obsessions) trigger intense feelings of anxiety and distress and consequently impair your daily routine/social functioning/work and school (or life in general). According to the DSM 5 criteria, a diagnosis of OCD will be made essentially when (1) the person’s attempts at controlling/neutralising distressing thoughts, urges or behaviours are unsuccessful; (2) excessive time is spent engaging in obsessive and compulsive behaviours; (3) there is no pleasure from time spent in these activities, but there is brief relief from the anxiety they cause; (4) the obsessions and compulsions cause significant impairment in social, occupational or interpersonal functioning. (This is not the exact clinical definition and diagnosis of OCD; for more, check this website out https://beyondocd.org/information-for-individuals/clinical-definition-of-ocd)
The Four Types of OCD
As mentioned above, OCD can be separated into contamination, perfection, doubt and harm and forbidden thoughts, which I will touch on briefly. I apologise that I cannot list out any concrete examples of compulsions as I find it rather easy to pick up more and more compulsions once hearing about them. Hence, I have tried my best to steer clear of these examples while doing my research, bearing in mind there might be people recovering from OCD who feel the same way, so I hope you can understand that! I have linked websites at the bottom of the article if anyone wants to further read about examples of compulsions :)
When someone mentions OCD, contamination OCD is what generally springs to mind for most people, and it is quite self-explanatory (to do with fear of germs and contamination, leading to excessive cleaning etc).
Perfection encompasses symmetry, order and needing things to feel exact and “just right”, and this is also what people usually think of. However, before thinking someone has OCD because they love keeping their folders “tidy” or “colour-coded”, I have to reiterate this again: people with OCD do not derive pleasure from their obsessions and compulsions. These are unwanted and tiring thoughts we feel no control over. I struggle with this and the next type of OCD (perfection and doubt and harm), and it is no fun at all - compulsions literally feel like your mind is torturing you! (bear in mind my personal experience may differ from other people’s experiences!)
Doubt and harm OCD includes constant checking, re-checking, re-re-checking out of fear that the person or a person’s loved one may be unintentionally harmed.
The last type is forbidden thoughts, where the person is infiltrated with unwanted thoughts that could be violent, sexual or religious in nature, thoughts that could directly go against the person’s morals. (and again, do not reflect on the person’s morals at all!) Links between OCD and other mental illnesses (such as depression, which isn’t uncommon) have been found, where 90% of adults with OCD have at least another mental illness.
How you can help!
There are so many misconceptions surrounding OCD that can be harmful to those struggling with it, so I strongly believe if more people are aware of what the disorder really entails, we are one step closer to shattering the stigma surrounding less-talked-about mental illnesses. I have both seen great sources on Instagram that aim to educate people about the realities of having OCD, yet I have also seen some built around misconceptions that continue to perpetuate harmful myths, so I will definitely link some helpful sources below as well!
Having the support of peers and family throughout this illness is incredibly important, so here are some phrases we all need to avoid in order to not invalidate their experiences!
This goes without saying, but please avoid using OCD as a quirky adjective if you don’t actually mean you have the illness as such
“I relate to you - I get so OCD sometimes too” - same thing, and also you can’t just turn off your OCD unless you actively recover from it
“You know that doesn’t make sense right” or “You’re irrational” *continues to explain how someone’s obsessions/compulsions are illogical - No way!!!
“It’s all in your head” - no sh*t Sherlock! Way to #stigmatise mental health!
“Just stop” - again, we are not a faucet, we can’t just turn it off
The next time you hear someone making these ignorant comments, don’t be afraid to call them out. It truly makes a difference, trust me!
My DMs are always open if you want to learn more about OCD (but please remember I’m not a medical professional) or want to reach out about it in general! Sending love and strength to those battling this illness - you are so valid, keep going! Thank you once again for making time to educate yourself more about OCD. Giving you all virtual hugs :)
Links:
1-800-950-NAMI (6264) (National Alliance on Mental Illness)
CALM helpline
0300 123 3393 (Mind infoline www.mind.org.uk)
Follow these great accounts!
@minnie.ocdrecovery
@theocdtruth
@the_ocdproject
Sources:
https://www.singlecare.com/blog/news/ocd-statistics/ (for more statistics)