For the first time in my life, I am vaguely fashionable – OCD is suddenly cool and you can’t go on Facebook without being told that your friends are ‘so OCD about cleaning their car’ or wash your hands without being asked if you have what is fast becoming a desirable disease, so let’s get this straight –
Just because you colour code your Tupperware, you do not have OCD (although you probably need to get out more). You do not have OCD because you wash your hands after eating or because you can’t sleep if your cupboard door is open. OCD isn’t always having to put your socks on first or eating your Smarties in a special order, it is a real illness and do you know what? It ruins lives.
Obsessive Compulsive Disorder can be funny – even I accept that some of my more bizarre rituals are laughable and so far from logic that trying to apply reason makes your brain ache. I get that you don’t mean it to hurt, but there are people out there who cannot leave there home because they are so terrified of becoming ill and dying, there are people who cannot cuddle their daughters because they are convinced that they are paedophiles, there are children who are so scared of killing their parents that they will refuse to touch a knife – there are lives that hide behind this witty little acronym. OCD means suffering.
Please don’t belittle our fighting. Please don’t use OCD to mean someone who is particular about the way things should be. Please remember that to some of us it isn’t a joke.
Obsessively compulsively yours,
Bellsie
Hell yeah. The worst one, and I have heard a lot of stupid comments over the years, but the one that really got to me: A girl I used to live with:
ReplyDeleteHer "God I need to go on a diet. I really need a good dose of Anorexia"
Me: "That's not how it works, and that's a pretty fucked up thing to say. You don't want to get anorexia, it's not a diet plan"
Her "Oh I do, a good dose of that would sort me right out. Or I need to master the art of Bulimia"
She didn't know about my ED. I should have said something, that would have been a brilliant opportunity. But I didn't. I just stared at my drink and thought about punching her in the head.
That's why I am now determined to start standing up about this stuff and being honest about my own experiences. It's about time people took this sort of stuff seriously. No one would say "I could do with a good dose of cancer" or "I need to master the art of diabetes" But unless people with mental difficulties speak out, how would these people know any different?
Lola x
That's really good in a bad way...
ReplyDeleteI think that you're right, you need to be open about it and stand up for yourself if you want this to change - nobody says 'I'm a bit multiple sclerosisy today'... so why is it okay for you to say that about mental illnesses?
I've had more than one person tell me "I wish I had OCD so then my car/house/office/kids would be all clean and organized." I'm very public about my triumphs and struggles and I use humor a lot to deal with my OCD/anxiety. Maybe that makes other people not understand the depth of the battle. I've also heard that it "isn't fair" that I'm agoraphobic and "get to stay home and lay around all day". Bless their misunderstanding hearts. They mean well.
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