One time my college professor who has a masters I believe in psychology said "if you are sitting in this classroom, you do not have OCD" which makes me anxious that I don't because I was in there experiencing symptoms of OCD.

Anonymous

Date posted: 4y

I have a master’s degree and I also went to law school, and I can assure you that I have OCD and that I was suffering from OCD the entire time I was in college. That professor is generalizing.

Anonymous

Date posted: 4y

Okay. That makes me feel better. I just was confused because who am I to know more about something than a college professor?

Evelyn4416

Date posted: 4y

I have a masters in psychology and I have ocd as well, your professor doesn’t know what they’re talking about

EtOCD

Date posted: 4y

I’m sorry but what basis did this professor make this off of? Did they do a psychological evaluation of everyone in the class? If not don’t listen to them

Anonymous

Date posted: 4y

They were saying it as in OCD is not just a "oh I'm so ocd I like my room clean!" kind of way. She was saying that no one with ocd could be sitting in a classroom, I believe, because it is such a hard mental disease. I appreciated her saying that ocd is hard but it made me doubt whether I had it. (I was undiagnosed at the time)

🌙

Date posted: 4y

@anyonymous well that’s disheartening...😔

Fathomable

Date posted: 4y

Ok so this is a real event rumination type thing and of course it's best to put your mind on something else rather than mull it over. It's a difficult memory which spikes your anxiety and some pain, but there's nothing to solve, it was just an ignorant statement. If you're still at that college, you could always talk to her about how you're diagnosed and had the symptoms then and you found it difficult for her to say that. So she might not use that line again, someone else could easily be in that situation in the future and it's awful to feel invalidated by someone in authority, it diminishes the effort you put in to be there. I'm at university with OCD, loads of us are because we are working extremely hard to be resilient and accomplish things despite our difficulties. It being a generalisation isn't an excuse, her words were still invalidating and unhelpful. She can easily illustrate her points that OCD is serious and debilitating without rolling out that line.

Fathomable

Date posted: 4y

If she isn't convinced, I'm sure that something which would help would be, putting the scenario to her of: what if she says that again and someone puts their hand up and states that they're diagnosed with OCD, how embarassing it would be for her and the trouble she could get in if what she said was reported by that student.

Anonymous

Date posted: 4y

@Scoggy Yeah. I might have let her know just because I dont want someone else to experience it. Or perhaps it was a misunderstanding on my part that she can clear up. Either way it might be good to let her know.

Fathomable

Date posted: 4y

@anyonymous You're totally not obliged to, especially as if she plays dumb/says she doesn't remember it or won't acknowledge that she was insensitive, that could be difficult for you. But I do think she would benefit from having it brought to her attention that her statement was invalidating for someone personally and also diminishes the hard work of many sufferers and implies that we aren't capable of success in life or even successful management/treatment of our symptoms, which is honestly kinda dehumanising. Of course you could direct her to this app if she doesn't want to acknowledge that people with OCD are capable of study and careers, as we have plenty of college students, academics and diligent workers here. It's cool that she recognises that OCD is debilitating, she obviously does care. It just really sucks that she had to say that.

Anonymous

Date posted: 4y

@Scoggy Yes. I know she cares and is a really good professor otherwise. I am even taking another class with her now. I think if I have a good chance I will ask her because perhaps I misunderstood or that wasn't what she meant. It just kind of messed with my anxiety.

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