For the longest time, I didn't know that what I had was OCD.  My whole life society had led me to believe that OCD was keeping a clean room, or when little things bothered someone, or when people washed their hands too often.  The truth is, people who have actually struggled with OCD would consider it a blessing if it were that easy.  The International Obsessive Compulsive Disorder Foundation defines OCD as "a disorder of the brain and behavior.  OCD causes severe anxiety in those effected.  OCD involves both obsessions and compulsions that take a lot of time and get in the way of important activities the person values."  In the article "Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder in the Media" it is stated that only 2% of people show actual OCD symptoms (and that is with the impact of the media in the modern day convincing people they have a disease when they don't), so why does one hear the phrase "OCD" so commonly?  "Can you fix your necklace, I'm OCD about where the clasp is."  "I hate when my food touches, it makes me so OCD!" The truth is, very few people are actually in that 2% and similar to other mental illnesses, the phrase OCD is offensively overused.  Many people in society are actually starting to notice this problem, and the other (majority) of people still do not realize that the stigma of OCD is an issue, or they are uninformed.  Through many different sources, one can see that there is a large problem with how society views OCD and other mental illnesses.  Obsessive Compulsive Disorder is a serious and life changing disease.  Society needs to learn the true definition and battle of OCD, because their current connotation of it is incorrect.  

To realize there is a stigma one has to know what OCD actually is.  The first aspect is obsessions.  "Obsessions are thoughts, images, or impulses that occur over and over again and feel outside of the person's control."  The International OCD Foundation addresses that "obsessed" is a word used in everyday language, which is unfortunate to the stereotype of the disease.  You can be obsessed without having OCD.  For instance, a person can be obsessed with having a clean room, but a person with OCD cleans their room, then makes is messy again, then cleans it again, and does it thirteen times because that number makes them feel safe.  IOCDF explains that the word obsession is really hard for someone with OCD to hear, because it diminishes the severity of their disease.  Obsessions can also be more serious, like a fear of getting sick, losing a loved one, or harming yourself.  Compulsions are repetitive behaviors or thoughts that a person uses with the intention of neutralizing, counteracting, or making their obsessions go away.  The major thing to learn is the difference between rituals and compulsions.  a ritual is a bedtime routine, practicing a new skill, or praying.  Compulsions would be having to say they exact same prayer multiple times while sitting in a certain spot, and if you don't you get the idea that your family or friends won't be safe.  OCD is very serious, and it is different than what everything things.  The first step of getting rid of its stereotype and stigma, is informing people on what it actually is.

Very recently, Target released a Christmas sweater that caused a lot of conflict.  USA today released an article about the issue "Target is under fire for a Christmas themed sweater that some customers say makes light of mental illness."  The sweater says "OCD Obsessive Christmas Disorder".  In light of this, many people were blowing up on twitter with their own opinions on the subject.  Some thought it was mocking mental illness, while others claimed "As someone with OCD targets sweater doesn't offend me in the slightest."  I hate to break it to them, but the odds are the people who it doesn't offend, most likely have been taught by society a false definition of OCD, which leads to them convincing themselves that they have it, which leads to them to thinking that the sweater is not offensive.   

It is sad how much society pokes fun at OCD, and the "Obsessive Christmas Disorder" sweater isn't the only time.  I've also seen the "Obsessive Cat Disorder" shirt which isn't much better.  If you search "OCD" on youtube, you don't find facts or documentary films about the disease itself, but you will find "My OCD Song" by Rhett and Link.  The song is over four minutes long makes fun of OCD and has a depressing 23 million views.  It makes the most pathetic claims about OCD such as "bags opened from the wrong end should be recognized as a sin" "toilet paper facing inwards" or "a closet thats not organized" (the majority of people that have OCD aren't actually neat, myself included).  So why do videos like this get so much attention?  It has to do with the stigma hierarchy of mental illnesses compared to other diseases, and then the hierarchy of OCD within mental illnesses.  "I think society at large still discriminates against mental illnesses in general, much less mine in particular" (OCD in the Media).  

Many factors lead to stereotypes of mental illnesses and the overuse of mental illness words.  The first being that people consider them less of a big deal compared to other diseases.  Although OCD is the 10th leading cause of disability of all medical conditions in the industrialized world (Impact of OCD on Quality of Life), the term is still not taken seriosuly.  You would never hear someone make a joke out of cancer so why do we hear it so often with mental illnesses?  Part of it is the misdiagnosis of them.  So many people think they have bipolar disorder or ADHD and so many physicians are undereducated and can't correctly diagnose it, so more and more people "have" these mental illnesses, making the terms fly around casually and disrespecting those who actually struggle with real diseases.  ADHD and OCD go hand in hand in many ways, and not just because they are misdiagnosed.  The International OCD foundation labels ADHD as an externalizing disorder, so basically their brain effects how they relate to the outside world.  OCD is an internalizing disorder meaning that the outside world effects thoughts in ones brain.  Due to this, people with OCD have generally controlled temperaments and normally avoid risky situations.  People with OCD have more activity in the frontostriatal system (behavioral functions), and people with ADHD have less activity here.  So if these disorders are so different why is it that 21% of children with OCD are diagnosed with ADHD as well?  IOCDF explains that if you think about a child in class counting and counting due to their OCD, they might not be as focused, and it can become confused with ADHD.  The incredible misdiagnosis and misunderstanding of ADHD also explains why so many kids with OCD apparently have ADHD as well even thought they are so different. 

The media misrepresents OCD and creates a stigma every day.  The article OCD and the Media studied characters from TV and movies that have OCD and how they are represented.  They explain that 50% of characters are able to achieve success, however, 37.5% of the doctors treating them were described as "criminals or sinister".  One example is the TV show "Monk", the article explains that Monk's doctor tried to shoot him, yet Monk still referred to him as one of the best doctors he'd ever had.  This is a prime example of the fabrication OCD faces.  "Examining how other characters treat those with mental disorders, as well as how characters perceive themselves, can indicate whether media images promote stigma or understanding" (OCD in the Media).  The article examines how many characters in the media with OCD have more negative characteristics than positive, one common stereotype was that the characters with OCD and other mental illnesses were criminals.  Although some shows do treat OCD as a serious issue, they still carry stereotypes and just false facts about the disorder.  Not to mention when a person sees a show on TV that includes OCD, it makes their compulsions that much more severe.  "OCD is a nightmare that cannot be imagined by those who do not have it.  It's usually made light of in the media ...  I hear professional jokes about OCD all the time, watch the Tv show 'Monk'" (OCD in the Media).  US News and World report issued an article on how OCD is misrepresented in the media.  The article stated myths about OCD that have gathered overtime through false characters in media, and explains how these myths are bogus.  "People with mental illnesses are criminal or violent", it turns out that people with mental illnesses are not only less likely to commit crimes, but they are more likely to be victimized.  "People with mental illnesses can't recover", but experts say that not only do people recover, but they can carry a job and a family.  Overall, there are too many incidences in the media where OCD and other mental illnesses are misrepresented.

Hand in hand with TV and movies, social media also plays a huge role in the trivialization of OCD.  When you search the hashtag #OCD on Twitter or Instagram, millions of examples come up, indicating that the disease is trivialized everyday, especially by the millennial generation.   Science Direct did a study on the use of the word OCD with twitter and the perceptions of people who use the word, and the perceptions of people who actually have OCD.  They explain that a disease can be trivialized in three different way "oversimplification of symptomology or causes, skepticism of severity, and overuse of humor, mockery or levity to describe the condition" (Pavelko and Myrick).   They study first addresses mental illness in society explaining that "the general public in comparison to mental health professionals, holds more negative attitudes about and desires greater social distance from the mentally ill" (Smith and Cashwell).  The first study looked at social issues.  They found out that female participants were more likely to respond to someone with OCD than male, and participants with other mental illnesses were more likely to share spaces with people who had OCD than those who did not have mental illnesses.  The second study tested twitter use.  It had a person tweet a mix of things, some including OCD hashtags and some not, and it examined how many likes it got and who liked it.  Users who identified as having OCD got more likes than those who did not, and more of those likes came from people who also identified with having OCD.  Clearly this study shows that those who don't have mental illnesses generally steer away from those who do.  

Recently the news has also been advertising a study that new moms have Obsessive Compulsive Disorder.  The website OCDtalk released an article "New Moms, OCD, and the Media" addressing this issue.  The article addresses the concern that while new moms definite exhibit symptoms, the study is one again misrepresenting the severity of OCD.  The study explains how new moms lose their symptoms after having their baby for 6 months, and to the public eye, this makes people thing that OCD is something that ends with a simple cure.  The author realizes that new moms can have postpartum OCD, but there are also millions of people who suffer from OCD and that studies like these need to differentiate between the two populations and the severity of the disease in each situation.  "The difference is in the severity.  In those with OCD, the thoughts become obsessions, the rituals turn into compulsions that very well might take over the sufferers life."

Stigma and OCD are hand in hand and its something that needs to change.  The article "Learning to Live with OCD" addresses stigma and what it really is and how someone with OCD should handle it.  The explain the "labeling" definition of stigma being that "those who are labeled suffer negative consequences whereas those who are not labeled do not".  The only problem with this of course is then that a person is getting "labeled" by their disease.  This goes along with the term "mentally ill" because it automatically creates a negative tone, and can lead people with mental disorders to self stigma.  The main problem is that people don't realize the harm of saying things like "OCD" and "depression".  People don't catch themselves when they say mentally ill casually, and nothing will change until more people are informed. 

I was able to understand the severity of OCD when I started my obsessions and compulsions my junior year.  It took me about four hours to get to bed every night because I would count and check and count and check and if I left my room I would have to do it all over again.  I was terrified that if I slipped up my family would be harmed or something would happen to me.  It became a serious problem when I started driving, and I would get compulsions to brake a certain number of times or close my eyes for a certain amount of seconds.  The irony of OCD is that every compulsion one does is out of pure fear to keep themselves or someone else safe, yet my compulsions just led me to more and more danger.  I can second that it is extremely hard to hear the casual use of the word OCD.  I hear it from my friends, I hear it from my teachers, and I hear it from people in the media.  It's hard to say something because you don't want to advertise that you have OCD, and you don't want people to think you are over exaggerating.  I remember being on the other side, I remember not thinking it was a big deal to say "bipolar" or "anorexic", then I went through it.  Every time someone says OCD when they don't have it, I think of what I struggle with.  I think of how scared I used to be and the therapy and the work it took to get past that, and my struggle is undermined.  Even though my OCD is one of the most miserable things I have ever faced, and even though I will face it for the rest of my life, I am glad to know that I feel confident it will never take me to the point of harming myself.  For others, it will and does every day.

 OCD is not being a germaphobe.  OCD is not keeping a tidy room.  OCD is not rewriting your sentence because you didn't connect the "O".  I wish OCD was that easy.  People who have OCD will trip and scrape their knee and won't feel safe to leave the house until their other knee is scraped as well.  People who have OCD can't go to sleep until they turn on and off their light 99 times.  People who have OCD are controlled by numbers, routines, and it is not something for the media to poke fun at, and it is not something for stores to make money off of.  And unless you are truly being controlled by your compulsions for over an hour every day you do not have OCD.  To say something as ignorant as "sorry I'm so OCD" when you don't actually have a mental disorder is to undermine every person who is battling against their own mind.  It is sad how uninformed society is.  It is sad that people on social media and characters on television are making fun of something that ruins peoples lives.  The stigma needs to end, and the knowledge and understanding needs to begin.

