Mental Illness+OCD Misrepresentation

Hi all. So recently I created a thread titled “OCD Misuse (Trying To Spread Awareness)”

I talked about my personal struggles and annoyances with both my head and the people who are around me. Now when I say “people around me” I’m talking specifically about the people who constantly misuse the disorder’s name and/or don’t take it seriously. OCD (which stands for Obsessive Compulsive Disorder) is often looked at as an adjective. People don’t realize that in actuality it is a serious and very debilitating disorder. Within the people who are actually diagnosed (which you have to be to have it, no self-diagnosing nonsense), there are different levels of severity.

So… I thought I’d make this thread where people can talk about other mental, physical, etc issues that are often overlooked and not understood. These can be issues/struggles you personally face, or just topics you notice. Spread some awareness!!

Contact me on Instagram @gabi.episode

Here’s a link to a (wordy) thread I made a while ago about OCD and my thoughts about how it’s represented in today’s society:

Here’s the links to my two stories about OCD:

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how can your friend feel bad about herself when psychopaths/sociopaths do not feel remorse? just wondering no offense.

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okay, let me reword it then. psychopaths do not feel any negative emotions. they do not feel loneliness. they do not care what others think. how can she hate herself? why does she care about what the media thinks? psychopaths can feel emotions, but only when it involves them or they want to fake it.

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People can hate themselves without caring what media think. Otherwise, you’re correct. Deleted my posts due to misinformation :v:

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is this referring to psychopaths or just in general?

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In general.

An illness often misinterpreted is Depression.

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True. Depression is becoming a trend. There’s a singer (won’t mention her name) and people suddenly diagnose themselves with depression after hearing her songs because they think it makes them look cool. Let’s be honest, most of her fans are 13 year old girls who don’t understand what depression is. Depression is a real mental illness, NOT an adjective, a joke, or a type of aesthetic. It requires a professional diagnose, not a teenage singer online who makes people think they have depression when they don’t. I just wish people would wake up and realize that depression isn’t a joking matter.

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Ikr. This singer isn’t trying to tell everyone to be depressed. She is expressing herself and feelings through her music and now people are just saying they are depressed because she is. I believe getting a diagnosis or checking for symptoms is the best way to find out if you’re actually depressed rather than mere intuition. I have seen my classmate who is depressed and from the way she behaves it’s very obvious she is and because of that she’s popular and now a lot of people have started pretending to be depressed just for looking cool.

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Please don’t get me started on misrepresentation of mental illness. I see it all too often in Episode and people don’t realize that when people falsely portray mental health problems (I’m speaking from personal experience about depression, anxiety, and PTSD) that it can actually have a negative impact on those who do have mental health problems.

People with depression smile and laugh (albeit sometimes it’s a fake smile) and depression can be very cyclic. There doesn’t have to be a “reason” to have an episode. Sometimes you just wake up, and everything seems grim. Sometimes it takes all the effort in the world just to get out of bed.

Not all people with anxiety are nervous. I have anxiety, and I’m not really a nervous person. When I have an anxiety attack, it’s like there is a pit in my stomach and I feel like I’m going to be sick. Sometimes I can’t breathe. It’s not because I’m nervous, but because something has upset me.

Not all people with eating disorders are skinny. My daughter has a binge eating disorder. When she is experiencing a stressful stimulus, she can’t control what she eats. I have a restrictive eating disorder, yet I am overweight (Hashimoto’s disease).

If you are not going to properly research what you are writing about, especially things like health-related issues, please just don’t write about it.

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I have physical and mental disabilities I understand all too well about the highs and lows :disappointed:

I don’t quite understand what this thread is about

But I do know when things are not being taken seriously :neutral_face:

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I believe that some people think that if you’re ‘stupid’ or ‘sensitive’, then you’re autistic. This is not true. You need to be diagnosed by a professional in order to actually have it.

With Asperger’s syndrome, a mental disorder that’s part of the autism spectrum, it means that I have trouble with communicating with others. I’m not an outgoing, or popular person at all. I have trouble with making friends of people that are my age, because I feel as though they won’t get me, or believe that I’m just an attention seeker. Sometimes, I can accidentally come off as quite rude without knowing. That’s another reason why I don’t want any serious relationship, whether it be love or a friendship, with anyone.

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As a parent of a child with Autism, I like to say,
“If you’ve met one person with Autism, you’ve met ONE person with Autism.”
As you said, it is a spectrum disorder and no two people are alike. My daughter is highly intelligent and while far from popular, she has several friends. She does struggle with communicating with others and social interactions. The stigma attached to Autism is a big problem. Because there is a preconceived idea of what people with autism are like and that people with autism act the same, my daughter tries to hide her diagnosis at school and often refuses to use her accomidations for fear of being ridiculed.
We are actually working on a story together that she is writing and I’m directing that is about her struggles with Autism, adapting to a new school environment, and dealing with an absent parent. Don’t know a release date, as she is very busy with school work.

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I thank you for replying with your experience with autism, with your daughter.

From time to time, I wish that I could be more ‘likeable’ towards people of my age. I usually blame it on my autism for me being too ‘serious’ and/or ‘boring’ towards children of my age.

I can emphasise with your daughter a lot. However, like you had said, it is a spectrum disorder and no two people are alike.

That’s really great. I’d love to try writing a story that represents and shows Autism in a correct way. Perhaps I’ll add that onto a list of future projects…

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I have mild Autism but because it’s not the full effect of autism it’s under learning difficulties in my medical notes

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I think all mental illnesses are severely misrepresented both on Episode and in the real world. I have depression, anxiety, and PTSD and I find that especially PTSD is misrepresented the most. I don’t even really mind the jokes and I’ve used a few myself (like saying “this gave me PTSD” at some mild inconvenience or startle) because humor is a way that I cope with it. But specifically I think the aftermath of a traumatic event in stories is often not even handled at all, they’ll have the MC go through something awful and then it’s just like, “okay, well time to move on now and never talk about this again.”

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Just a short simple thing.

I have depression, anorexia, PTSD, OCD + and a few other things.

I hate them. They’re not cute or quirky or romantic or deep or poetic, or touching. They destroy you and your life. I’ve missed a year of education completely because of them, and I’m probably going to miss way more than that. I have so many scars and bruises, both physically and emotionally from these. I have to use plastic cutlery now, and even then, under supervision. I can’t use pens with springs in them, I can’t go or be anywhere without direct supervision, including the bathroom. I’ve had the police, paramedics, family, witness me as a blubbering mess. I’ve had to reveal my entire life story and repeat every single traumatic event I have been through, over and over and over again, to different doctors and emergency therapists every time. They do keep it on file, they just want me to repeat it in case of god knows what. And every time I repeat it, I relive it. My mind takes me back to that time and I feel every single ounce of pain, physically and emotionally, all over again.

I did a social experiment, back when my mental health wasn’t so bad. I asked what they thought of the following illness:

It a debilitating illness. Sometimes you can’t get out of bed, let alone get dressed and go to work. The pain is just too much to bear. It can cause cuts, bruises, it can even kill you. It can destroy your life. Some people have to be admitted to hospital for sometimes years because of this illness. There’s medication, but often it makes the illness worse before it starts to work. But people make fun of people with the illness and undermine it.

All 100 people I asked said ‘that’s horrible, nobody should ever have to go through that. nobody should ever make fun of that kind of illness, it sounds really serious and terrible.’

Then I told them it was depression. Only 40% of people stuck to their first opinion. 60% laughed, looked a little shy, said, ‘oh, that’s not really… real. It’s not that bad. I mean, you can get rid of it by just thinking positive and stuff. It’s not… a real illness.’

haruka, this was supposed to be short, damn you.

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I find PTSD is not only very misrepresented but also greatly minimized.
I talk about it a little bit in this post:

One thing as a person that has PTSD that really irritates me is the overuse of the word “trigger”.
People like to use the word to describe anything they find upsetting or offensive. That is NOT what a trigger is. Don’t minimize the effects of triggers by calling every little thing that you don’t like a trigger.

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Very relatable. It used to be a trend (don’t know if it still is) for people to just randomly go TRIGGGEREEEED!!! I mean, what? Why? It’s not funny :woman_shrugging:t2:

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Yeah :sweat_smile: