OCD—short for obsessive-compulsive disorder—is one of the mental health issues most frequently depicted in pop culture. Sadly enough, it is often used in a casual way, or even worse—as a punchline. However, for people with OCD, the disorder is no joke at all.
A quick scroll through the subreddit r/OCD offers a peek through the eyes of a person who has OCD. One saddening realization quickly kicks in, and that is that people with OCD are suffering. The disorder is an illness. It's not a punchline of a joke. It affects a lot of lives in a really painful way, so why do we depict OCD with an easiness that, for instance, schizophrenia would never be depicted with?
"OCD is so TIRING, and yet so many people don't think it's that serious of a psychiatric condition," one person on Reddit points out. "The phrase OCD is thrown around so flippantly in everyday life, like 'I'm so OCD about the way I organize my pens' that I don't think people realize how hard it is to live with," they continue. "Severe OCD is so debilitating. Not every OCD has physical behaviors like checking or tapping. You can go years not even realizing you have OCD and the symptoms can go under the radar because they can switch from one obsession to another."
More info: Twitter
One Twitter user opened up about how misrepresentation of OCD in the media is hurting those with the disorder
Image credits: imdb
The Twitter thread seemingly resonated with a lot of people—over 115k of them liked the thread, and almost 30k retweeted it.
One thing after reading the thread and the comments below it became apparent: it hurts people with OCD when those without the disorder claim they have it. "Every time I hear someone who likes being tidy say 'omg I'm so OCD' I want to give them a good, hard smack," one social platform user tweets.
"I hate when people make the 'OMG, I am so OCD' joke just because they like things a certain way," someone added. "My OCD is an absolute nightmare and I wish more people understood how it really works."
The thread went viral on Twitter and resonated with a lot of people who are living with OCD
Image credits: shiraisinspired
Image credits: shiraisinspired
Image credits: shiraisinspired
Image credits: shiraisinspired
Image credits: shiraisinspired
Image credits: shiraisinspired
Image credits: shiraisinspired
Image credits: shiraisinspired
Image credits: shiraisinspired
Image credits: shiraisinspired
Image credits: shiraisinspired
Image credits: shiraisinspired
Image credits: shiraisinspired
Image credits: shiraisinspired
Image credits: shiraisinspired
Follow this [link] to find out more.
Image credits: shiraisinspired
Image credits: shiraisinspired
Here's what other people had to add to the topic
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Follow this [link] to watch the video.
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How do you feel about this? Maybe you're one of the people suffering from OCD and you too are annoyed by the misrepresentation of the disorder? Share your thoughts in the comment section down below!