Op-Ed: Your OCD is Showing
If you can’t see something, does that mean it’s not real?
We’ve all heard it before. Hell, we’ve all said it ourselves. “I’m so OCD about _______.”
Cue collective laughter and affirming nods. Isn’t everyone a little OCD about something?
That OCD is a legitimate, mentally-crippling disorder is unquestionable. And yet here I am, advocating for its validity and insisting that we begin to take it more seriously.
Just picture this: a child creeps out of bed at ten o’clock on a school night. After descending the staircase quietly, their feet pad across ice-cold hardwood. Frozen in a unique mixture of paralyzing fear and overwhelming exhaustion, the child stares at the lock on the front door.
Then, following ten long seconds of stillness, the child moves toward door, touching the lock in six quick, gentle movements, and sprints back up the stairs, careful not to look back.
Three. That’s the number of times this child has peeled their tiny body from the comfort of their warm bed. This child is me. I am in the fifth grade and I can’t sleep at night because I’m convinced someone will walk through my front door and murder me in my sleep.
But tell me about how much of a neat freak you are!
Obsessive compulsive disorder is defined by the National Institute of Mental Health as a disorder where a person has “uncontrollable, reoccurring thoughts (obsessions) and behaviors (compulsions) that he or she feels the urge to repeat over and over.” Common OCD behaviors can include compulsive counting, precise, particular arranging of objects, and repeatedly checking things. About 3.3 million adults and nearly 1 million children have Obsessive Compulsive Disorder in the United States.
OCD is the red-headed stepchild of the mental illness family—illegitimate, the ultimate laughing stock. Mike Sacks penned his day-to-day experiences with OCD in a recent New York Times article, aptly referring to it as “da beast.”
And what a beast it is. It’s Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde come to life, a never-ending cycle of psychological exhaustion. I ask again: If you can’t see it, does that mean it’s not real?
Perhaps society’s tendency to poke fun at or normalize OCD stems from the language and response surrounding the disorder itself. Think about it. How often do we hear of the disorder in a tone that isn’t condescending or better yet, speculative?
In Jane Brody’s NYT article “OCD, a Disorder That Cannot Be Ignored,” she cites a fatal case of the disorder, in which a man ultimately decided to end his life. People will find that shocking….but they shouldn’t. Like so many other mental illnesses, there is no cure, and while cognitive behavior therapy and medication exist, these options simply don’t work for all sufferers.
Though there are certainly parallels between different mental illnesses, the reaction to all disorders are not equal. Case in point: When one person confides in other about their depression, in most cases, they aren’t met with ridicule, but rather with care and concern. What’s more, they aren’t expected to immediately provide proof of their illness.
“Show me your scars!” exclaims no one. Why is it, then, that OCD sufferers are pressed to prove that their disorder exists? The select few that I discuss my disorder with inevitably ask, “What are you OCD about?”
At once, real debilitating issues are suddenly made to be relatable.
“Ugh, I hate germs, so I know exactly how you feel.”
“I feel paranoid that my door isn’t locked, too. Don’t worry!”
“When my desk is a mess, I can’t think straight. It’s the worst!”
What do these dialogues do to improve the mental health of the sufferer? The answer is as painful as it is clear: Absolutely. Nothing.
Blogger Timbits addresses the abuse of the term “OCD” in his parody post “Please, Please Use ‘OCD’ Correctly.” Rather than being a passive witness in situations where people joke about having OCD, he suggests taking advantage of the opportunity to correct people who nonchalantly throw the term around.
U.S. Representative Eddie Bernice Johnson, too, comments in Time Magazine that “casual colloquial comments”—i.e. “I’m so OCD”—”underscore how we can all misuse terms and diagnoses for very real, very serious mental health problems that are affecting real people.”
The way in which the media portrays the disorder are equally concerning.
Rep. Johnson mentions this, pointing to two opposing representations of the disorder in television, that of USA Network’s Monk and HBO’s Girls. Each show approaches the disorder differently; Monk’s OCD is quirky and humorous, whereas in Girls, the disorder is serious and unnerving. The media’s responsibility for accurate portrayals of mental illness is a whole separate can of worms.
Written respectively in playful and serious veins, these two make an excellent point: we must change the way OCD is acknowledged, portrayed, and responded to by society at large.
It’s easier said than done, but it is doable. Truly, it is a matter of spreading awareness and thinking before you speak. Don’t demand proof. Don’t normalize the disorder.
So, I inquire once more (because my brain has conditioned me to do things in threes….
If you can’t see it, does that mean it’s not real?
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Wow, thank you for writing this op-ed and sharing your experiences. This was a very powerful piece that I truly enjoyed taking the time to read. Prior to entering the higher education field, I spent the first part of my adult career working in the mental health field. Way to often, OCD was a mental illness that was the "red haired step sister". Muck like you said, it used as a joke much more then it is used seriously. Again, thank you for sharing your experiences!
ReplyDeleteA fantastic op-ed Elaina. OCD is way too treated in the media and elsewhere as a joke when, as you explain so beautifully, it is anything but. It took a lot of courage to write this. I especially love the way you close the piece by "coming full circle" and returning to the story you shared at the beginning.
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