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You may not have known that it was recently OCD Awareness Week between Oct. 13 and Oct. 19. According to the Anxiety and Depression Association of America, one percent of the U.S.’s population suffers from Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder, but the general understanding of the disorder is often limited to obsessions with order or cleanliness. As someone who has Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder (OCD), this lack of knowledge surrounding the disorder can be frustrating; especially because it can at times be harmful. It’s important for people to recognize that OCD can, and often does, go much much further.
Not to invalidate those who suffer from contamination worries, “just right” OCD, and perfectionism OCD; or to minimize the amount of work these subtypes are, but these are the well-understood and widely-discussed subtypes of OCD. Here’s a brief overview of some of the lesser-known fixations that sufferers can have.
False memory OCD leaves people obsessing over the accuracy of their memories to the point where they compulsively check the accuracy of said memories, again and again, sometimes creating false memories.
Harm OCD riddles people with intrusive thoughts of hurting others or themselves. Someone with harm OCD will engage in compulsions to relieve themselves of the stress and fear associated with these thoughts. These compulsions often involve hiding potentially dangerous objects (knives, etc.) to prevent their use.
Hoarding OCD is hallmarked by the obsessive collecting of various items coupled with an intense fear of bad things happening if they discard something. These worries manifest in the obsessive hoarding of various items.
Pedophilia OCD can be characterized largely by unwanted sexual thoughts about children, and compulsions that neutralize these thoughts, such as avoiding children altogether.
Unbearable doubts about one’s sexual orientation coupled with compulsions that bring a feeling of certainty regarding it are telltale signs of Sexual Orientation OCD.
These are just a few of the many forms that OCD can take on, and those with the disorder can suffer from different combinations of themes. However, the disorder always attacks what the sufferer cares about. For example, those suffering from relationship OCD do so because they are deeply afraid of losing the love about which they care so strongly, and those suffering from harm OCD do so because they’re terrified of harming others or themselves. People generally don’t obsess about pleasant things.
OCD is a difficult thing to live with, and a lack of public awareness surrounding the disorder results in a substantial amount of cases going untreated because the would-be patients, themselves, do not know that they suffer from OCD. In addition, when people use OCD as an adjective to describe a preference for neatness or a fear of contamination, it perpetuates the belief that this is all OCD is. So, for the sake of all those who suffer from other subtypes of OCD, the least we can do is educate ourselves on what exactly OCD can be, and stop using it as an adjective to describe something that it is not. OCD requires a diagnosis, while the last thing I want to do is gatekeep mental illness, it’s important to keep in mind that there’s a far cry between one’s personal neuroses and a disability that occupies large amounts of one’s day. When we use OCD to describe anything less than the horror it actually is, we minimize the pain of others, and make light of the lifelong struggle against chronic OCD that many people have to face every single day.
In growing our own understanding of OCD, and by being more mindful in our use of OCD, we will cause less pain to those who struggle with it and will make it easier for all those who suffer from OCD to be diagnosed, treated, and understood. This week gives us the opportunity to get started on the long overdue task of recognizing pain that has long gone unseen, and changing the common narrative that OCD is just its most common forms. The disorder’s symptoms take an estimated 17 years to be treated on average; and as someone who’s lived through untreated OCD, I can promise you that helping people recognize their symptoms early is work well worth doing.
