Our response to harmful mischaracterizations of OCD in the New York Post

Thank you so much for this. Beautifully written. Really hoping for a retraction and public apology like so many other communities get after offensive articles. Really disliked the NYP already, but now I’m even more disgusted, especially as a fellow journalist. Amazed this passed editing.

Just read this "article". Please anyone with ocd to not even give it a second thought. We are good people and the author did not cite any sources for his claims. Absolute bullshit

I just read this and I definitely can’t help it but feel triggered. It’s sad that society views me like this. I thought that it would be an exposure to sit through the discomfort and just read this, but it just makes my OCD worse. Any advise on how not to take it personally and move on?

I just read this article and it seems politically motivated and written in bad faith. Try not to put too much stock into it.

Thank you for this.

Thank you for addressing this!! So much wrong with that article.

God is our judge and he’s going to tell me who I am. I’m not going to this article tell me who I am and create what ifs. This makes me so sad, but we have to educate people on what OCD really is. This def triggered me, but I realized these people, who don’t know me at all, are NOT going to tell me who I am or who I might turn out to be. Article was 🗑️ 👎🏾

The NYP is truly a screwed up publication overall

This article definitely triggered me. What’s worse is I sent it to my family telling them how awful it is. My mom and sister told me how they could see its plausibility, which has only hurt me more.

Hello, Remember this, ocd wants a guarantee and you’ll Never receive that. You have to learn to live life with an unknown happening. Focus on what you can control. Like your behavior, your environment. This article is like any other article our there providing contradicting information. People with OCD understand what ocd is. Remember that. Remember that you were fine befire you saw this triggering article. Stay on your toes and continue your day. Imagine how your life was before ocd triggers and fake it till you make it. Their just triggers and we can get over them!!!

I tried to sit with all of the emotions I felt reading it and man, it was tough. Tried to use it as a good exposure tool but it honestly triggered me a bit and caused some “what if” thoughts and I’m not so much anxious as I am annoyed really. But hey, at the same time, this is what we trained to do in ERP. Remember one article and one journalist doesn’t definite who YOU are.

I found this pretty antagonistic of them. People with OCD usually have nothing but good intentions and hold themselves to a high standard

Dr pat!!!! You’re the GOAT!!!

I don’t usually read the NYP because in general I don’t find it a reliable news source and this doesn’t assuage those thoughts. What an awfully researched, biased, misinformed news article. I wanted to read it and not get info from second hand sources and I audibly swore two paragraphs in.

What bothers me the most is some of the responses to the article. I can mostly ignore the post because I don’t trust NYP anyway, but reading some of the comments from people without OCD scares me.

I actually just made an account to comment and address misinformation myself. There are actually a LOT of supportive comments but some nasty ones too. Someone accused me of “draining the life” out of people because im mentally ill and basically called me a monster lol. But plenty of kind people stood up for me :). its So annoying, basically putting us in the same category as extremists and terrorists. And they way they used Greta and her OCD as “proof” of it causing extremist views is actually disgusting. She spoke about her condition, fights for the safety of our home planet and THIS is what she gets? Shameful.

Thank you Dr. McGrath. You're the best and we are so lucky to have you!

That NYP article was terrible and irresponsible of them to publish. Thank you for this response

Yes, thank you for calling the New York Post out on their bigotry and ignorance. I’m definitely triggered, both by their lack of knowledge and their stigma of mental illnesses, as well as their disregard towards the human rights of trans people. Obviously, they would like to infringe on our right to freedom of religion, too. Sounds like big government.

Phenomenal response

So grateful for NOCD and organizations like the IOCDF for taking quick action on this. What an egregious article the NYT published.

Thank you so much for being our advocates! I originally felt safe sharing my OCD with others because of how much is now understood scientifically about the disease. But with articles like the New York Post's coming out into the public, with a misinformation epidemic already overtaking the internet, it scares me to think that we might be targeted because of careless and unsubstantiated articles that are being published. Thank you for taking a stand to correct this gross misinformation!

This is full of slander and misinformation (the nyp article). I'm just curious if anything legal can be pursued? Thank you NOCD for sticking up for us. You are appreciated. This is the one of the most damaging insulting things ive read.

https://www.ocduk.org/ocd-uk-condemn-new-york-post-article/

Thank you Dr. McGrath !!!

The article is definitely not well written- the authors word choice alone, and lack of evidence, showcases this. OCD is so misunderstood, especially it’s ego dystonic nature, it’s sad how the author wrote about OCD as if we want to have obsessions and compulsions or enjoy our obsessions.

It is so important to react quickly like you did. Thank you Dr. McGrath!

Thank you so much for speaking against the articles!

Weirdly enough it doesn’t bother me as much as I’d expect. I’m here for anyone who needs support: we can laugh at the article together ❤️

Thank you so much🥲😪

Was this response sent to the offending publications? If no, why not?

It triggered me,as I am currently in the grip of harm ocd,and am still trying to convince myself that it’s ocd and we don’t act on our thoughts,very disheartening 🙁

"Thinking is difficult, that is why most people judge" - Carl Jung.

article was posted during the worst time for me, my harm themes were returning for first time in a while

Lolol someone should let that writer know that correlation does not equal causation.

Sorry for the typos. I was triggered by this as well and am using it as a exposure

Thank you! X

I just braced myself to read the article 😥. Very triggering. Thank you Dr McGrath

Thank you Dr Patrick Mcgrath. You are the best..

I had the idea that some people wanted to characterize OCD sufferers in a bad light but wasn't sure why. Now I can see why. Thank you for this.

Thank you

How do they know article was wrong?

Thank you for this!!!

This was in the New York Times! I want to laugh but have seen the comments above. They associate a lot of mental illnesses to violence. Law and order episodes, there is an organization in New York who focus on it as well called schizophrenic.nyc. I think it’s a personality defect as well - Jeffery Dhamer - Netflix’s explain that. Totally normal parents. This is really laughable. So goes not getting a subscription to this paper. Man their content has gone down. Probably politics. Should see what political parties back up this newspaper or the political bias of this newspaper