As a psychologist of 27 years, I have professional concerns about the increasingly popular misconceptions surrounding obsessive-compulsive disorder. In common parlance, people frequently joke that someone is “a little OCD” for preferring symmetrical decorations, or keeping a tidy desk. This is an abuse of the term. Genuine OCD includes significant anxiety with accompanying ritualistic actions that disrupt normal life.
As a mental health professional, I feel a responsibility to correct these misstatements.
If I hear a friend, acquaintance, or even stranger misusing the term, I immediately provide a clinical description of OCD to clarify the error. Sadly, this irritates some people – for example, the valedictorian at my daughter’s high school graduation. But if I were to miss these teaching moments just because she was making a speech, where would we be? To do otherwise would make me feel unprofessional, upset, and even dirty.
The mistakes abound in popular media. Scouring film and print is time-consuming, as is my correspondence to those responsible. Thankfully, I can correct print media myself with a red pen, buying all available copies to correct each accordingly. My home is becoming cramped with the boxes of newspapers and magazines, but what choice do I have? Especially when most editors openly refuse my letters?
Naturally I worry my own thinking may become tainted by misinformation. As a precaution, when I encounter an erroneous statement I re-read the DSM-5 description of OCD to myself five times.
So I beg you, readers: stop misusing the term “OCD.” I know OCD when I see it.
This piece is, of course, a playful parody (I am certainly NOT a psychologist), but even so, isn’t it funny how certain ideas from medicine and science come into the general public consciousness and then start showing up everywhere? Fifteen or twenty years ago everyone would have jokingly said that neat-freaks were “anal-retentive.” I can’t decide if it is a good or bad thing: on one hand, everyone has a greater awareness of these issues; on the other, it dilutes the concept. Any thoughts, readers?
If you enjoyed this bit of silliness, perhaps you should check out other news parodies I’ve written on the Timbits Newsflash series page.
The header image is a modified version of “To Be Delivered” by Michael Coghlan CC BY-SA 2.0.
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