What’s something you believe the general public and/or media misunderstands or misrepresents about OCD. I personally believe too much (if not, all) the attention is given to the visible part of the illness. That is, the compulsions. The media (in my opinion, anyway) represents OCD in a way that can be portrayed as “quirky”. We often see movie characters etc with “OCD” simply flicking a light switch on and off, washing their hands or being preoccupied with simple tidiness. While these very well can be compulsions actual OCD sufferers experience, little to no attention is given to the debilitating intrusive thoughts (obsessions) that drive OCD sufferers to these compulsions. Hence, a lot of the public has a very much distorted idea of what OCD is actually like to live with. It’s hard enough to tell someone you have OCD, let alone when they believe all the illness consists of is some desirable, quirky traits like neatness. Let me know what you think! It’s something I’m extremely passionate about and would love to research further. d a i s y

I generally point people to the movie ‘The Aviator’ and say “it’s kinda more like this” ...although his case was a little more straightforward, I am glad they went into things like intrusive thoughts and the panic scene where he gets anxiety and has to leave to go fix himself is straight out of my own life

There were talks around a year ago I saw of OCD being given a new name and I actually thought what a good idea because like you’ve all said in this post OCD is very distorted in the media and to lots of people. It’s views as quirky, a personality trait, something that’s ‘useful’ to have. I think one of the biggest things is people don’t see the actual pain and suffering it causes. They don’t see someone who believes they are a monster because of OCD who is shattered into pieces because they can’t cuddle their newborn out of fear, or they don’t see that person at the party sat barely able to move but looking ‘normal’ but with a mind full of intrusive thoughts and soul gripping fear. They don’t see someone mid panic attack because their mind is drowning in fearful thoughts, feelings, memories and filling them with adrenaline and cortisol. They don’t see the desperation when someone is struggling and asking their loved ones the same questions, ruminating over the same things trying to stop new things coming in for hours relentlessly trying to think themselves out it, or praying or googling until they find that one thing that will make it feel better. This is what people don’t see and what they don’t understand. Under the label, under the obsessions, under the compulsions is a person desperately trying to find themselves amongst this truly devastating illness. People also don’t see the fight, the hours and days, weeks and months, years spent in therapy, or looking for a therapist, reading books, articles, reaching out to communities, holding down jobs and relationships, or figuring out ways to manage when they can’t work, when they can’t function as well, the time spent educating themselves, looking for ways to recover, and the true strength it takes to hold onto hope even in those darkest moments of OCD. People don’t see the incredible resilience that each and every person with OCD has. We have more fight in us than we even realise, we stand by each other and support and care and lift each other up because we understand on a level that unless you’ve been there you will only be able to scratch the surface of. We are warriors and that I think it what the world doesn’t see x

I totally agree Daisy. I feel like OCD is generally shown as only compulsions, instead of obsessive thoughts that can result in compulsions. I wish more people understood more about it.

Yeah the "Aviator" really hit me because I thought "wow, this is the first time I've seen OCD accurately portrayed" - like the way, if left unabated can really snowball and terrorize your life. Fortunately now we have support groups and apps (hooray!) so we don't feel isolated, totally alone or scared because we don't know what's happened to us.