By Olivia Hicks
Mental health is no stranger to us teenagers in this day and age. From the combined effects of social media to the people around us, the concept of mental health is constantly surrounding us. Many of these mental health conditions are usually stigmatised and represented incorrectly, leading to harmful stereotypes. While many mental health conditions are commonly misrepresented, OCD is a mental health condition that I feel is both underrepresented and misstated.
Obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) is a mental health condition characterised by two parts, obsessive thoughts, and compulsive habits. The ‘O’, or obsessiveness, are repeated, unwanted thoughts which may lead to stress or anxiety. There is the ‘C’, or the compulsions, which are repetitive behaviours a person feels they have to do in response to an obsessive thought. For example, an obsessive thought of having to clean the entire kitchen may lead to compulsions to constantly cleaning the kitchen. Such a stressful cycle of obsessive thoughts and compulsive actions is incredibly harmful, impacting 2.5 million people worldwide.
The issue at hand is the untrue stigma around this mental illness, which is that if someone is neat or clean, they have OCD. I have been diagnosed with OCD and this singular comment infuriates me everytime I hear it, as it is just completely untrue. OCD does not merely mean cleanliness; as a society, we need to stop stigmatising it this way. As mentioned above, OCD stems from obsessive thoughts from an individual, which carry out into certain compulsions. While some people, like myself, have thoughts about cleaning which develop into obsessive cleaning, millions of others do not experience this, and this stigma makes their experience as an individual battling this so much harder.
But does stigmatising OCD actually affect people? In reality, the consequences of stigmatising mental health conditions in society can lead to many detrimental effects. Firstly, it creates a stereotype. Due to the stigmatisation of OCD, it has a stereotype of being known as the ‘cleaning’ disorder. This fuels another issue, misdiagnosing. Misdiagnosing OCD is a common mistake professionals make with an estimated average of over 50% of total yearly OCD cases being misdiagnosed. Secondly, with stereotyped mental health issues, self-diagnosing may prove to be even more inaccurate. If individuals are unable to self-diagnose or reflect on an issue in their personal mental health, they will be even more unlikely to seek professional help. Lastly, when a casual stigma is created, it makes those genuinely suffering reluctant to get help due to their symptoms not seeming ‘real’, leading to worsening mental health.
Overall, mental health is not there to be stigmatised. Mental health is in place to help us understand ourselves and how we cope with our issues, and it is how it should stay. Instead of creating stigmas and being unfair to those struggling, we should all come together to educate ourselves on the true nature of mental health.