If you like to keep your desk tidy and pens organised, you probably think you have OCD. Or maybe it’s because you’re obsessed with keeping your underwear drawer colour coded. That’s cute, but this does NOT mean you have Obsessive Compulsive Disorder.
OCD is incessant thoughts telling you that you’re not good enough. It is the belief that nothing is clean enough, or that you shouldn’t have said that idiotic thing. It could be the constant vicious thoughts of stabbing your partner.
It is not cute or funny.
OCD is cruel and vicious. It can ruin your life, making you depressed, causing constant suicidal thoughts. For some reason OCD has become part of the cultural landscape. Leading people to believe that it is an obsession with cleanliness and order. Of course, it can be. But it also has a much darker side.
A common catchphrase
OCD can be a visible mental illness. With symptoms being reduced to cute quirks, that can be controlled. “I’m super OCD” has become a common catchphrase for well-organised people. It has become a positive trait. And it is very clear that the people who say this have never had to suppress their thoughts spiralling out.
OCD, as the name states, is an obsession. Thoughts fill our minds, distracting us from the world. They consume our attention and can destroy our will to live. Sufferers don’t want these thoughts, they just become all that we can think about.
A simple comment can evolve into a malicious thought. For example, my girlfriend may warn me how sharp a knife is. My mind will go off on a tangent, imagining what it would be like to slice my throat after stabbing my girlfriend. Now I have this repetitive, bloody, image repeating in my mind.
An innocent comment rapidly turned into a monster.
Rituals of compulsion
These are the rituals that fight off the things we fear the most. Mine is the fear of my apartment block burning down, or my flat being burgled. This means I check the house before leaving, making sure the oven is off. Even if it hasn’t been used. As I lock the door, I tap the handle three times, drawing an X in the air over the door. Walking away I look back and say “the door is closed.” Even with this ritual, my mind still tells me the house will burn down.
Rapid changes
A sudden change of plans can leave us panicked. In our minds, we are flailing around looking for something stable to hold on to. A sudden change of plan can leave us mentally immobilised, sometimes physically as well.
These obsessions aren’t cute, or eclectic, and they are definitely not charming.
They’re quite frightening to experience. They keep us trapped in a scary place, wishing we could “choose” to have a quirky mental disorder.
Stop romanticising OCD
When people turn OCD into something cute or funny, I’m left wondering if they have ever been so obsessed with suicidal thoughts, that they become scared that they will kill themselves. Or if they have become obsessed with a tiny part of a conversation. A few words repeating, over, and over, and over.
It would drive you insane.
Unless your OCD is packaged with irrational anxiety, haunting malicious thoughts, or crippling discomfort with uncontrollable events- then you don’t suffer from a mental disorder. You have just romanticised the idea of Obsessive-Compulsive Order. If you happily state that you are OCD, then you have no idea of the pain we endure.
My OCD is a secret to 97% of the people I know. I don’t boast about having it, I wish the therapy would work quickly to stop these thoughts and feelings.
It’s not funny or cute to claim a mental disorder for the sake of appearing quirky or unique. Find something else, anything else, and be thankful for your mental health.
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This post was previously published on MEDIUM.COM.
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The post OCD Isn’t Cute, Quirky, or Fun appeared first on The Good Men Project.
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