Is OCD Romanticized Too Often?
In societies today, normalization and self-diagnosis of mental illnesses has become common. OCD is one of the most common misjudged disorder.
What is OCD?
A person is diagnosed with Obsessive Compulsive Disorder when they have recurring thoughts, ideas or fears (obsession) that make lead them to do things repeatedly (compulsions). These compulsions and obsessions cause significant distress as they interfere with the person’s daily activities.
Wanting to keep yourself and your environment clean at an overage level does NOT characterize as OCD.
Obsessions are persistent thoughts that cause distressing emotions. Examples of obsessions include
1. Needing things to be symmetrical
2. Unwanted thoughts (religious, aggressive or sexual)
3. Horrifying thoughts like causing harm to yourself or others around you
4. Fear of contamination/ dirt by touching other objects
5. Intense stress when things aren’t orderly
6. Doubts regarding nominal things like whether you’ve locked the door or not
Compulsions are repetitive actions (mental) that a person feels compelled to perform in response to obsessions. These compulsions aim at reducing the stress caused by obsessions. Examples of compulsions include:
1. Checking
2. Counting
3. Washing and cleaning
4. Ordering/arranging
5. Requiring reassurance
Inappropriate use of OCD
“I am obsessed with keeping my room tidy, I have OCD”
“I’m going to do the dishes right after dinner because I have OCD”
“Oh my god, my laces aren’t evenly tied, I’m so OCD!”
OCD is often romanticized by people who characterize being meticulous, orderly or perfectionist with having OCD. When people suffer from OCD, their daily lives are interrupted with this illness resulting in them not being able to achieve their tasks and halting progress/ chores making them overly distressed. It is because these obsessions and compulsions are at such a great extent and the level of impact on the person is so high that one is diagnosed with OCD.
Although talking openly about your mental health problems is a great coping mechanism, however, on the other hand, it results in people often tend to self-diagnose because it gets them attention or is trendy. This culture of self-diagnosis and using mental illnesses for humour purposes is not only disrespectful towards those clinically diagnosed with it but also triggering for them. This tends to underestimate the damaging effects of OCD.
Educating yourself on such illnesses is imperative and using the terms so casually romanticizes something extremely dangerous. Believing that OCD indicated wanting to be clean and orderly results in people wanting to have this disorder. The issue is much more than that.
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