What exactly is Obsessive Compulsive Disorder, and how is it different from pop culture representations of it?
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Obsessive Compulsive Disorder or OCD is neurological condition that causes people to have severe Compulsions or Obsessions.
For example someone with OCD might be obsessed with germs (a germaphobe) leading to a compulsion to excessively clean or wash their hands.
In severe cases a person with this compulsion might become too scared to leave the house rather than risk being exposed. Might wrap everything in plastic, refuse to touch people or shake hands, decontaminate their personal belongs, constantly wear a mask, or even wash their hands so frequently as the damage their skin and nails.
Other compulsions might include excessively sorting and organizing, constantly check if the doors are locked, or an obsession with counting things as examples.
OCD is often trivialized because many people have the compulsion to clean frequently, or need to have things perfectly straight and organized but this isn’t necessarily due to OCD.
While people who suffer from more severe examples of it need serious help to be able to function in a healthy manner.
Imagine getting that feeling of “Did I leave the stove on?” randomly during the day and it causing you so much anxiety that it drives you mad to the point where you can’t even function until you go home to check.
Not a psychologist, but have a relative that’s OCD. It’s to the point where he washes the garbage before throwing it away, everything from food to plastic trash. If someone throws something away he goes and gets it out and washes it. Will endlessly research any product he buys to ensure he gets the best model/brand. Often will walk the house and lock/relook every door multiple times and violently shake them to make sure they’re locked up.
If my understanding is right for a lot of them it’s an”I gotta do this or bad stuff will happen.” So kinda like when you get that feeling when you leave your house if you left the stove on, but with very specific things. An overwhelming feeling of “if I don’t do this than that will happen” and it’s too overwhelming. And that may be only one type, I think some people have it but it presents as a perfectionist/completionism thing where they have to see stuff finished, a cancelled tv show mid season or getting out of the car before the song stops isn’t happening.
It probably classifies as OCD if goes sufficiently beyond what can be rationalized/ gets in the way of life
2+ Hours daily of repeated behavior/thought which cause the client emotional distress that they want to stop.
There is debate whether hoarding is a form of OCD since it (most often not always) does not cause emotional distress.
Not a shrink, scientist, or particularly smart man, but maybe one would agree that OCD emanates from a misconfiguration so deep that you can’t really tie it sensible or even normal behaviors or concerns. OCD is not being a neat freak; it’s washing your hands til they bleed while living in a filthy house. OCD is not liking to make sure you locked the door; it’s having the breath sucked out of your lungs until you can get your hand on that door knob one more time. It’s not being careful about where you step; it’s about the fear of hell seizing you where you stand and somehow being tied to the placement of your foot with respect to this sidewalk tile the moment that car passes by.
In other words, pop culture’s representations of OCD have nothing to do with OCD, because watching someone in the grips of an attack is about as entertaining as watching a lab rat groom itself until its hair falls out. It’s not quirky, and it’s not cute. It’s sweaty, shaking fear and confusion that only gets in the way and only hinders a person’s relationship with everyone else.
OCD is so deep that it comes not from the abstract tapestry of social norms and concerns that we have a clear vocabulary about, but from a glitch deep in the lizard brain that tells us not to touch a hot thing or jump from a high place. It fuses your very instincts to survive with absurd and trivial actions.
Edit: I just reread this and remembered where I was. Maybe edit it a bit before explaining this to an actual five year old lol
Pop culture conflates neuroticism with OCD. For example, a TV character is very particular about their closet being organized by color or having all their books lined up by size.
In reality, OCD is an anxiety disorder marked by obsessive thoughts (usually a feeling of danger but the source can’t be identified) and behaviors developed to self-soothe that become a ritual that one feels compelled to follow to ward off danger.
Here’s how the behaviors usually develop:
Person A feels a sense of unease. Trying to identify why they feel uneasy, they start trying to guess the source. “Did I lock the door? I’d feel better if I go check.” They feel better. Next time they feel uneasy, they go check the door. It’s unlocked. They lock it. They feel better. The feeling returns, so they check the door. It’s locked. To make themselves feel better, they unlock it, then lock it again “just to make sure.” The feeling returns, so they check the door. It’s locked… But is it? Twist the handle and tug the door. Yup, it’s locked. They feel better… for a bit. Then they start to think “What if I forget to lock it? I’ll make sure that never happens, I’ll check it every night before bed and every time I wake up.” So, every morning they check the lock, unlock it, lock it again, twist the door handle and tug.
After a while, Person A forgets the original thought, but the body has committed to memory the sense of relief whenever they follow the steps of going to the lock, unlock and lock, twist the door handle and tug. It’s as ingrained as a normal person’s instinct. It’s no longer about making sure they don’t forget to lock the door, they’re subconsciously trying to prevent the sense of unease from returning. They’re afraid of feeling afraid, and that fear drives them to seek out safety, and the ritual provides relief but also reinforces the feedback loop. Even when Person A wants to stop, they can’t. There’s this intense feeling that if they don’t complete the ritual, something bad will happen.
Effective treatment to break the feedback loop is to trigger the fear and then not allow performing the ritual. Through repeated exposure and response prevention (ERP), Person A starts to erode the pathways that connected the ritual from a sense of relief. A new ritual can develop, so other effective maintenance treatments are anti-anxiety medication and/or cognitive behavioral therapy to help OCD sufferers calm their anxiety before it spirals.
Pop culture plays up the “neat freak” symptom where things must be in a certain way. The reality is far more crippling, often resulting in an inability to function or make basic decisions due to the obsession of making sure everything must be right.
In the past I’ve worked with a YouTube hopeful who was diagnosed with OCD. Unfortunately, his OCD manifests in the constant need for validation for every single thing he does on his channel. His pattern of behaviour was as follows:
* He wants to make a video on one of two very specific video games.
* He wants to make jokes in the video because other gaming channels are funny
* He becomes paranoid over whether it’s appropriate to make jokes and what kind of jokes are appropriate
* He posts on every relevant subreddit asking if he is allowed to make jokes
* He gets told it’s fine from every single subreddit
* He goes through the same loop a week later
* He gets banned
* He makes an alt account and repeats
And that’s just the visible side of it to us – I’m pretty sure he has the same conversations with counsellors, therapists, etc. The point is the pattern of behaviour: he is *unable* to break the loop of doubt and is “programmed” to seek validation before he takes action, but then he doubts this validation and seeks more validation.
OCD is an anxiety spectrum disorder. The obsession is whatever the individual is anxious about. The compulsion is the behavior that relieves (very temporarily) the anxiety.
For instance, a mother might have an anxiety that she is going to accidentally burn her baby with bath water that is too hot. First she checks it repeatedly. Then she gets someone else to check it, repeatedly. Then she uses a thermometer. Then she buys a laboratory grade thermometer. Then she has to get a special calibrated laboratory thermometer. Eventually she cannot be convinced that the water temperature is safe and insists on using cold water, but checks it multiple times.
It becomes an issue when it interferes with a person being able to function and do normal activities.
OCD in my experience is mostly the manifestation of anxiety. It isn’t a cute quirky thing people do like in the movies. It’s something someone does when extremely anxious in the hope to ease the anxiety. And they don’t want to do it. They HAVE to do it. Because if they don’t their anxiety just gets worse and then the irritability and worry amps up even more.
So I have ocd surrounding my plugs, doors, windows.
I can’t use my oven , I check it’s off everyday even though I havnt used it in over two years. I have to take photos and vids of myself checking doors and windows are shut and then I have to keep re checking.
it’s very stressful and I’m often up late checking,
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