Hello everybody, I’ve actually posted all about this many months ago, but the topic closed because it had been so long! I find this topic important, so I’m making it again. I feel that it should be talked about more as well.
One thing that really bothers me is the misuse of OCD. I’ve had OCD since I was 3 years old (which is very rare to be diagnosed with that young) and am very passionate about spreading awareness about the disorder. The term OCD is now more than ever used incorrectly just about everywhere I look.
OCD stands for Obsessive Compulsive Disorder. It is a debilitating mental illness that is often overlooked by people and not taken seriously. Social media, influencers, celebrities, etc, portray it to be a quirky adjective, or just something that everybody has. Many of my past teachers have even misused it. Let me start off by saying that not everybody has it. It is far more complex than what many people realize.
It is not a joke or something to be taken so lightly. It’s just as serious as other mental illnesses but due to the stigma around it these days, no one takes me seriously if I say I have it. I waste hours every day doing rituals and other things in my head. Somethings I do physical rituals that other people notice. Sometimes I’m accused of spacing out. I take medication for it, which has helped me. To put the disorder in simpler terms, people with OCD have an electrochemical imbalance of turning the cells in their brain off.
Myself, just like many other people who have been diagnosed with this debilitating disorder, get understandably annoyed and insulted when others use the term frivolously to describe being neat, or just wanting something a certain way. There are so many stereotypes around it too, such as being neat or being a perfectionist. Of course some people who have it have those traits, but it’s not the only determining factor. It’s how much these rituals and thoughts disturb your everyday life. Please don’t misuse it or say you have it without being diagnosed!! It’s debilitating and not “fun” to have! ( yes, people have told me I’m lucky to have it.) Also grammatically saying “I’m so OCD” makes no sense. OCD is not a word… it stands for Obsessive Compulsive Disorder. You must be diagnosed. You cannot diagnose yourself. It’s not an adjective.
I know this is not in the promote your story section and the point of this thread is to talk about OCD… but adding to the topic, I have a couple stories about OCD.
My newest story is called OCD - Rituals.
A long time ago I wrote a story called Truthfully Yours, OCD . It was featured on the 2019 Voices of PWD shelf! (I wrote it when I was newer to coding, which is why I wrote Rituals.)
I’ll leave the links if you wanna check it out, because it’s kinda hard to think of everything I wanna say as I’m writing this. If you want to know more about it, that would be cool if you checked them out! I also encourage people to research it. Thanks for reading some of my thoughts.
Please feel free to ask questions and bring up other topics regarding mental illness misrepresentation.
My Instagram is @gabi.episode if you want to reach out. I’m open to talk about this subject!