- Date posted
- 3y
- Date posted
- 3y
Hello!! I know that was probably difficult for you. I had to deal with this myself at work when my boss was saying he was OCD with how things are presented or displayed. I got really annoyed and offended. “I’m so OCD” is overly saturated and very ignorant. I think it’s great you’re stepping out of your comfort zone and doing exposures! It seems like you have a good friend and maybe this will be a good time to tell her how you feel and what you’re struggling with. In order to minimalize the stigma and stereotypes, we need to address and correct them. Maybe you won’t have to go into much detail, but it might be a good idea to say you were hurt. I’m sure she will understand and show compassion.
- Date posted
- 3y
I definitely like your response . 100% agree with what you said !
- Date posted
- 3y
Yeah....it is so frustrating. Theres a while marketing campaign around OCD as Obsessive Christmas Disorder. I didn't want to tell my mom about my OCD. But she caught me at a weak moment and basically guilt tripped me by saying that I always shut her out and never tell her anything. I knew she wouldn't be able to handle a lot of detail, so I gave her just bare bones. When I got done, she says "I think everyone is a little OCD." It was so hurtful and so dismissive. It sent me into a massive spiral and I almost quit treatment because of it. I started doubting myself, my counselor, and my treatment. A friend helped me through it. My mom just doesn't get it when it comes to mental illness. I have offered her opportunities to get educated, but she refuses.
- Date posted
- 3y
I know she loves me, and I know she has good intentions, but it still hurts
- Date posted
- 3y
Thank you so much for your responses. I have thought about this a bit and do realize that she likely doesn't mean any harm, and to be fair she doesn't know that I have OCD (not that it makes it okay to use the term incorrectly!). OCD is so commonly misused in everyday conversation, that many people just have no idea that their usage could be damaging or offensive. I'm going to write up an email tonight (that I may or may not send) but at least it will help me organize my thoughts. I really appreciate you both sharing your experiences and insight.
- Date posted
- 3y
Yesterday, I listened to an interview with one of the founders of NOCD. He was talking about this very subject and was talking about how to get people to understand what OCD feels like. He said to have them get a pen and paper and write I hope (name of person they care about) dies tonight. Ask then to notice how uncomfortable that is and how they felt writing that. Some people will refuse to write it. Others will scratch it out or wad up the paper. Then he Imagine having that thought 100 or 200 times a day. Imagine how distressed and upset that would make you feel. That is what it is like for someone who has OCD." I thought that was genius.
- Date posted
- 3y
@Lms526 That’s definitely accurate . He was on point with that analogy 💯
- Date posted
- 3y
@Junior96! I thought so too
Related posts
- Date posted
- 20w
Lately I’ve seen way too many comments under posts about OCD, especially the harm, POCD, and relationship themes that are incredibly misinformed and honestly harmful. People saying things like “these thoughts are unnatural,”or “you need to go get real help” and encouraging confession ***compulsions*** when they clearly have no understanding of how OCD actually works. Let me be clear: OCD involves distressing and unwanted thoughts, images, or urges. That doesn’t make someone dangerous. It makes them someone with a mental illness who is terrified of their own brain. Saying these people are “unnatural” or implying they’re broken only reinforces shame, and shame is the opposite of what helps anyone heal. If you’re commenting under OCD-related posts on an OCD ***app*** without understanding what intrusive thoughts are, or what compulsions can look like, or **how OCD can attach itself to the things we fear most** then please, stop. You are not helping. You’re reinforcing stigma and pushing people further into silence. OCD is already isolating. We don’t need more people moralizing or projecting trauma theory onto something they haven’t experienced or don’t understand. If you really care, go learn. Read about intrusive thoughts. Learn about ERP therapy. Or maybe just listen. Because some of us are barely hanging on, and comments like those don’t just miss the point, they can do real damage. I’m sorry if I come off too angry, it just really upsets me to see people speak on something they clearly don’t understand. End of rant. Thank you for reading 🤍
- POCD
- BIPOC with OCD
- Relationship OCD
- Students with OCD
- Harm OCD
- Real Events OCD
- OCD newbies
- Young adults with OCD
- Date posted
- 19w
LONG VENT POST: This is my second post of the day. Seriously, I am SO sorry. I have therapy tomorrow, I promise I will shut up after this lmao. Anyway, for Memorial Day weekend, I spent it at my aunt/uncles vacation house. Fortunately it wasn’t a big crowd - just my mom, grandmother, aunt, uncle and I. For context, I come from a pretty big family, and I am the youngest of 7 cousins and a younger sister to two brothers. All my cousins are in their early to mid 20’s, each very successful in school and their careers. My half brother is 29, and absolutely crushing it. My full brother is turning 23, he’s also doing amazing with school. I just turned 20 in April, I feel very lost. I know I want to be a forensic psychiatrist one day, and that I want my PhD. I want to be the best therapist I can be, but the fact that I barely get by with ocd/adhd has been discouraging me, so I currently feel like a flop. Anyway though, spending time with my aunts/uncles/cousins/grandparents triggers my ocd the most, as majority of them can be on the judgmental side. ESPECIALLY my aunt, she’s on my moms side, and she and my mom are total opposites. My aunts a very calculated, straightforward, logical, stern, sassy buisnesswoman. She’s successful, but lacks a lot of understanding and can be so cold and just mean. My moms a kindergarten teacher in a struggling community, and she’s always thinking about others before herself, extremely emotional, caring, but neglects her own needs a lot. They’re sisters, and they bump heads a ton. My aunt and all of her kids aren’t neurodivergent. They simply don’t understand mental health. My mom does, thank god. My aunt and uncle think that if a kid is having a psychotic break, then that kid should be kicked out of the house and not helped at all. My mom and I entirely disagree with this idea, and that someone clearly mentally suffering NEEDS mental health help asap, and they need to be home. The streets are the last place someone suffering should be. While we were vacationing at the house, my mom argued about this with my uncle. I was asleep, thank god, but I seriously hate having people in my family like this. I can never tell them about me having ocd, they’ll think it’s just an “excuse” for not getting things done, or just me trying to feel special. The reality is, they don’t get it. My full brother went through the worst psychotic break a few years ago. It lasted two years on and off due to bipolar disorder, but thank god he got himself help and he’s doing absolutely amazing now. He’s frustrated and embarassed with himself but now he’s on track, and as I said, crushing it with school. But the entire time he was going through this, my aunt and uncle just didn’t understand. To keep it short, they thought his mental problems were behavioral, and that he’s a “crazy” kid. The reality is, he was coping with the loss of his childhood best friend and our other uncle who was like a second father figure to us. He had manic episodes from the grief and self medicating with drugs and alcohol. This was all the while Covid was happening and he was a freshman at a college states away. He was so vunerable. I’m saying all this because, well, how am I to seriously be forward about my mental struggles when they couldn’t even show the slightest amount of empathy to my brother, who was struggling, so much more intensely than me? I’m quiet at family gatherings when they’re around for this exact reason. I have so much resentment toward them for it. I try to avoid them when I can, because I love them, I just hate their actions/views. What do you guys do with these kinds of people?
- Date posted
- 17w
If you are anything like me (and most of you are, because let’s face it, we are all on this chat), you have OCD. Real OCD, not the organisation, matching colours everyone thinks it is. Real OCD. I’ve always known I was different, known that my brain does some waking things and deep down, I’ve always known I’ve had OCD. But there is just something that changes when you finally get the diagnosis. It makes more sense, you have an explanation for your behaviours. So naturally I told my friends. When they ask why I had to stop and step four times on a tile I said ‘oh, I have OCD’. I finally had a word, a tangible concept that I could explain to people. But nobody warned me about the massive misconceptions about OCD. Instead of support or acceptance, my friends seemed to question the diagnosis saying ‘that’s not ocd, don’t you just like things organised?’. And no matter how much I explain it they don’t seem to get it. And that’s the part that feels so cruel. I go through hell in my head and it can all be reduced to a phrase of ‘oh, aren’t you organised’. So please be careful out there you guys, and if someone try’s to downplay your experience, know that you are valid and that what you are going through is probably something that they could never handle. It’s a lesson that took me time to learn, but it’s important because our experience matters. Our real experience.
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