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brookie90801

Date posted: 6y

Does anyone ever feel that OCD is not taken as seriously as bipolar, depression, schizophrenia, PTSD, and other commonly talked about illnesses? I mean, mental illness in general still needs a lot of awareness and understanding, but I feel like when friends, coworkers, social media friends, etc. do talk about the seriousness of mental illness and what they have been through, or when movies or shows try to include mental illness to spread awareness, OCD isn’t mentioned a whole lot. They do mention “anxiety disorders” as a general term, but that’s usually it. One day my coworkers were discussing some mental illnesses they’ve had or family members have had, and the main ones were depression, anorexia or other eating disorders, schizophrenia, and PTSD. When I said I suffered from OCD all through my childhood but was better now, some coworkers looked surprised, one actually seemed offended that I was comparing my experience with OCD to that of the other disorders, and some even told me, “oh, OCD isn’t as bad as this” or “Oh I have it too, I’m a really clean person.” I’m glad mental illness is being talked about, but sometimes I feel like OCD isn’t seen as a big deal. Maybe it’s because it’s commonly used as an adjective, or it’s been thrown around so much as just being “organised and clean” that it’s not acknowledged by most as an actual disorder that is hard to cope and live with. My friends and family with depression and suicidal thoughts say I had an easier illness to deal with, which is totally not true. Many movies and shows that want to show illnesses and such (the ones that actually do a good job at it, anyway) don’t mention OCD at all. Posts on social media about mental illnesses rarely include OCD. I guess my main question is this- does anyone else feel that their struggle with OCD and the strength and courage it takes to seek treatment and help is severely undermined, unacknowledged, not cared about, overshadowed? Or is it only in my life and what I’ve been observing? Curious to know, and also wanting to get this frustration off my chest so I feel less lonely.

Contamination OCD

MichaelK

Date posted: 6y

Absolutely. The first time I tell people I have it I never use the acronym right off the bat, instead I say the full name of obsessive compulsive disorder, and try to explain it because even if they think they know what it is usually they don’t. I’ll say something like “I have obsessive compulsive disorder, which isn’t what it seems like from movies and social media. It consists of 2 things, obsessions and compulsions. Obsessions are fears that pop up frequently that are triggered by things called intrusive thoughts, which everyone experiences, it’s just that people with ocd usually have more of them and they don’t just pass over like they do in most people and they can cause severe anxiety (usually they understand what an intrusive thought is). Compulsions are things people do to ease the anxiety created from these obsessions and intrusive thoughts, like washing their hands or checking a lock. My OCD has nothing to do with cleaning, and is what’s called primarily obsessional OCD, where my compulsions are things that aren’t physical, like ruminating about an obsession or other things I do in my head. It impacts nearly everything I do in one way or another, and makes even simple things like picking where I want to eat or sending a text to someone much more stressful and difficult than they would be for most people.” Hopefully by then they have a pretty decent understanding of the basics of it, and obviously if they suffer from a mental illness themselves or are familiar with any they probably wouldn’t need as in depth of an explanation.

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