âIâm so OCD!â is one of those phrases that gets thrown around a lot. âIâm so OCD, it bothers me when a picture is crooked!â âIâm so OCD, all my pens have to be organized!â âLook at these pictures of things slightly out of place, and find out how OCD you are!â
I have obsessive-compulsive disorder. And believe me, if having OCD just meant straightening my desk a lot and cringing at design mistakes, my life would be a whole lot easier.
When people think of obsessive-compulsive orders, they tend to think of younger, female neat freaks, scrubbing their kitchen counters and washing their hands a lot until someone teaches them how to chill out. Even progressive TV show Glee fell into this trap, portraying OCD as a cute personality quirk that ultimately makes the affected character more charming. Thatâs not the reality for the majority of people with OCD. So letâs look at some facts:
- There are two parts to obsessive-compulsive disorder: obsessions, and compulsions. Obsessions are unwanted, intrusive thoughts that pop into your head constantly, and compulsions are rituals that make those thoughts go away. OCD is not about good housekeeping or hygiene: itâs primarily about making unpleasant, obsessive thoughts go away
- Not everyone with OCD has compulsions. Up to 50-60% of cases of OCD consist of obsessions alone. Sufferers use mental rituals to relieve the obsessive thoughts, making their OCD completely invisible to others.
- Obsessions can be fucking horrifying. While itâs true that some people with OCD fixate on germs, most people with OCD are plagued by constant, intrusive thoughts of bad things happening to their loved ones, or the idea that they themselves might do horrible things to other people. As a child, I was convinced that if I didnât do things a certain way, my family would be killed in a house fire. It wasnât quirky, or silly, or cute. All day long, every day, I lived in constant fear that my entire family would fucking burn to death, and it would be all my fault. Thatâs the reality.
- People with OCD usually understand that their compulsions donât make sense. People who have OCD have a disorder, but theyâre not stupid. Even as a child, I understood that keeping all the doors in the house closed and counting everything off in multiples of five probably had no rational connection to house fires. But that didnât mean I could stop doing it. Ignoring compulsions generally makes them worse; itâs like an itch deep in your brain that you have to scratch, or those horrible thoughts keep on coming.
- OCD is not a âwomenâsâ disorder. Men and women are equally likely to be affected.
- OCD usually doesnât show up alone. People with OCD usually have at least one other mental disorder, like major depression, general anxiety, anorexia, bulimia, Autism, or social anxiety disorder. I have OCD, Touretteâs and ADHD; those three disorders have an extremely strong genetic link, and all three tend to run in families together.
- Around 2.3% of the population will be afflicted with OCD at some point in their life. Once OCD develops, the majority of people will have symptoms for the rest of their lives, even with treatment. Going into remission, even briefly, is extremely rare.
- The symptoms of OCD can be so distressing that people with OCD have a higher lifetime risk of suicide than the general population.
- There are treatments available for OCD that can greatly relieve symptoms and allow people with OCD to lead healthy, happy, and productive lives. Despite this, itâs estimated that less than 10% of people with OCD actually receive treatment. The longer you go without treatment after the onset of the disorder, the more difficult it will be to make improvements.Â
- OCD can manifest itself in seemingly unusual ways, such as skin-picking or hoarding behavior.Â
OCD has been around for at least hundreds, if not thousands of years, and yet weâre only just beginning to really understand how it works. And the good news is, weâre making great strides in treatments! Researchers are working on new drugs, new therapies and new theories about OCD every year, and people with OCD are leading healthier, more functional lives than ever before. And thatâs awesome. But there is still enormous stigma attached to this disorder, and it doesnât help when itâs played off as a joke or a silly personality trait that most people have.Â
Take it from those who have lived it - OCD is terrifying, itâs frustrating, and itâs painful. Itâs no joke. And we need to stop treating it as one.Â
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