Dont Say You Have OCD Just Because You Like Things Clean | The Mighty It really pains me when people say they have "OCD," just because they like cleaning things. Read this article and tell me after whether you still think you have OCD...
That is not what I expected at all... Most of my family suffers from OCD. When my mom lived in California, it would literally take her hours to get out of the house because she would have to constantly come back and make sure the door was locked. I'm not diagnosing myself, but I do have some of the tendencies such as counting, cleanliness, etc. I fear that getting officially tested will confirm my suspicions, so I avoid it. However, just because someone has a little bit versus a lot doesn't mean you have to shame them. Having problems like these no matter the scale is not good, I think we can all agree. Granted, many people lack the knowledge of the distinction between OCD, OCPD, and just general annoyances, but that doesn't mean you have to take a stance above them. Having OCD doesn't make you better than anyone else, nor is it a trophy. If you have it, you have it. If you think you have it, well, that's sucks, too. Just because it cripples some people doesn't mean it isn't bad in other people's lives.
@TortoiseSpeed Can you enlighten me on why you think that self diagnosis is a good idea? Genuinely want to know.
I don't think self diagnosis is bad if you are actually doing research and you are almost positive you have it. Some people have no access to a professional diagnosis of mental illness but through their research are able to conclude they have a disorder. It's very comforting to know that what you have has a name and other people are feeling similar to you. Anyway, I totally agree with this post and the fact that self diagnosing of that variety is not cool at all. People treating mental illnesses like a mood instead of what they truly are is disturbing. Anyone who claims to be "OCD" because they keep their room clean should get to know someone who actually has OCD and compulsively washes their hands or something like that. Then maybe they'll realize that OCD isn't just a cute quirky trait, it's a life changing problem for some people. Same thing with depression, bipolar disorder, etc. Having a bad day and being sad is not the same as actual depression. Depression can ruin your entire life. Just because someone changes moods quickly or seems a bit off one day doesn't mean they are bipolar. Actual bipolar people really struggle with relationships with other people and cannot control that. tl;dr Mental illnesses are not adjectives to describe mood, they are life changing burdens that some people actually carry. When you say you're "an OCD clean freak", "feeling depressed today", or "so bipolar loool" you are making their struggles seem trivial, when they are NOT.
But at the same time, people who actually do suffer from these things don't have them all the time, at least not at the same level. They're not "trivializing" it, at least not most of them. They're just comparing themselves to someone who has it, and yes, they may be similar, in fact! Again, I don't see how people treat mental illness as some kind of trophy or badge you wear on your chest. It's like because you tell people "I HAVE OCD" they all of a sudden can't talk about it or compare themselves to you. It's the same with jokes about cancer, diabetes, ebola (see sig), and etc. I just don't understand what's so darn special about it.
According to my doctor, I have OCD. But in my perspective, I don't. When I was younger I'm certainly I did, I used to go absolutely crazy when people, for example, didn't put volumes on even numbers. When I had to scrub a bucket around 10 times after it bumped into something and other over the top things which drove me crazy. But now to this day, my doctor says I still have OCD. I'm very organized and I can't stand a mess, but now it doesn't extremely effect me, I go out day to day seeing something that highly annoys me but in no means does it actually effect me enough to be a disorder, if it annoys me enough I go out of my way or ask them if they/I can fix it- maybe that is a little bit extreme but still, it doesn't really effect me anymore. It really bugs me as well when people say "Oh I have OCD!" because something isn't fixed right... but oh well <w>
I'm kindof 50-50 about it myself, maybe because I can see people start bringing their storage areas into topic <w> but I guess off topic is more relevant XD Moved it XD
Oh, I just got a bucket of M&Ms for Christmas and its red and green ones.... I seriously just poured it all out and put the two colors into their own piles... ffffff
Everytime someone moves something to make it "organized" and says I have ocd, I say "oh honey, no you don't. You don't have anything close to ocd" That's it. Thought I would share that
