OCD- By Seta Salkhi

Hey guys! My name is Seta, and I just wanted to take some time to briefly talk about my experience with OCD. If you want a more in-depth overview of it, I wrote an article called “OCD: What You Think You Know — and What You Really Don’t” on Monte Vista journalism’s website (mvstampede.net).

OCD: What is it?

OCD stands for obsessive compulsive disorder, and if you have it, you usually experience it in two steps: First are the obsessions. The compulsions come next.

Obsessions are horrifying thoughts that enter a sufferer’s mind unfiltered (i.e. my mom will die tomorrow). Everyone gets them, but most people know that they are unreasonable and can move past it. In the brain of a person with OCD, however, these thoughts trigger a crippling anxiety that may last for hours, even though the person is aware that their obsessions are crazy. This is where compulsions come in.

Compulsions are the solutions created by the sufferer’s brain to ease their anxiety temporarily (i.e. if you blink four times, your obsession won’t happen). However, the more often that you give into your compulsions, the less time that feeling of relief lasts and the more your OCD will continue asking of you. Eventually, the relief will never come and you might start engaging in a single compulsion for hours on end.

Examples of my obsessions...

• My family and friends will die.

• California won’t survive its next earthquake.

• The devil will haunt me for the rest of my life.

• I will never get rid of my OCD (ironic, I know).

etc.

...and their corresponding compulsions.

• Rub your elbow back and forth against the wall in sets of four until your satisfied.

• Don’t think of the number 6. At all.

• Write and erase and write and re-erase that word on your notes until that uncomfortable feeling in your chest goes away.

• Repeat everything you say in sets of four until your satisfied.

etc.

*keep in mind that these obsessions and compulsions took up to 10 hours of my life on any given day.

Stigma and OCD Stereotypes

In the popular media and in everyday language, OCD is often used to describe the character traits of a clean and organized person. There have been countless instances in which people have asked me, “So you’re just like super clean, right?” or “Are you sure? That doesn’t sound like OCD to me.” These phrases don’t seem like they’re much more than ignorant, but they can be extremely harmful for the following reasons.

1. Sufferers of OCD may not know what it is that they’re experiencing.

There are hundreds of thousands of people in the U.S. that are known to be struggling with OCD; it is extremely likely that there are thousands more with undiagnosed symptoms. They may not have the resources to get the therapy and medication that they need, and their pain is only further exacerbated by the spread of false narratives about the nature of OCD.

2. Sufferers of OCD may develop “self-stigma.”

If a person with OCD finds themself constantly seeing their disorder mischaracterized on popular media outlets, they will develop something call self-stigma: an internalization of those stereotypes. This leads to the sufferer questioning the validity of the pain they are experiencing and may result in self-isolation, which — in the case of OCD — will likely result in never-ending anxiety and lifelong debilitation.

3. In spreading inaccurate stereotypes of OCD, you are minimizing the experience of a sufferer who has recovered from the disorder.

This can also trigger a spike in symptoms and force them to fight against it again. After all, there is a reason most recover-ees end up having multiple relapses of OCD.

Final Take

The stigmatization of the term OCD is extremely damaging to people living with the disorder, especially considering that they will have to live with that pain everyday for the rest of their lives (even if they have recovered from it). So, moral of the story: Don’t use the term “OCD” as an adjective just because you think it’s cute and quirky. The consequence of your selected vocabulary outweighs the self-satisfaction you get from saying it. So please, just don’t.