Ah, this is the one that really gets us. You hear it all the time – people claiming that they are a bit OCD about their clothes or because they always arrange their crisp packets according to colour. There’s one thing they’re forgetting about though… the D in OCD. Disorder.
In order to get a diagnosis of OCD, you have to experience considerable distress and spend a lot of time on these compulsions and obsessions.
Yes, we all have obsessions (see this blog post about that) and yes, we all have rituals (whether it’s saluting magpies to lucky charms), but we don’t all have the disorder side of it.
By using OCD to mean finicky, neat and tidy, particular or to describe your quirks, you are minimising the suffering of the thousands of OCD sufferers who live with this debilitating condition every day. OCD ruins people’s lives. It leads to broken marriages, unemployment, dropping out of studies and even suicide.
So that’s the one thing that I want you to remember this week. The one thing that I want you to spread the word about. Stop using OCD and trivialising this serious condition.
Check out this video where Ashley Fulwood CEO of the charity OCD-UK shares his expert advice on this subject over on our YouTube channel
Bellsie
