I woke up this morning to a notification about a quiz trending on my Instagram feed. Two of my contacts whom I am following had taken the quiz and posted their results to their ‘stories’. Quizzes like these are not made to diagnose those who are genuinely seeking answers for their mental health; they are meant to be for fun and humour.
Last year, a designer cup corporation advertised their brand new launch through an insolent claim: “I have OCD. Obsessive Cup Disorder”. The new collection included cups with the graphics, ‘I may have OCD - Obsessive Coffee Disorder’ (which is caffeine addiction, hence neutralizing its severity as well. Two birds with one stone).
I enter the library and walk across the newspaper stand which has the headlines printed in bold red: “Violent protests SWARMING THE CITIES: The fatal turn of the public’s OCD on radical beliefs and violence”.
A girl in my friend group back in Kerala, claims to be a “Mental Health Advocate”, but simultaneously doesn’t mind saying “You are a little OCD about this”.
Those responsible for these incidents, say or do it without thinking of how someone who has been clinically diagnosed with OCD would feel if they were to come across this type of content. These actions demote the experiences of those who genuinely suffer or live with the disorder because they have been reduced to nothing more than some idiosyncratic, quirky material to warrant ridicule and humour. People with OCD are often portrayed as caricatures of abnormal perfectionism, which has been commonly ridiculed as a part of their “anal-retentive behavior”. I don’t think that there has ever been a week that has passed without someone around me commenting the lines of, “I’m so OCD” in casual conversation to describe something about having particular preferences or to portray mild perfectionism.
The term obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) frequently appears in everyday speech to characterize people who are meticulous or who have strong opinions. People frequently title social media posts with terminology like "I'm so OCD" (Pavelko & Myrick, 2016), which may promote stigma and misinformation about this multifaceted condition. The American Psychiatric Association (APA) describes OCD as a severe mental health illness with laborious compulsive behaviours that frequently cause major incapacity and suffering (APA, 2022; Fennell & Liberato, 2007). According to the American Psychological Association (APA), obsessions are desires, visions, or ideas that are unwelcome, upsetting, disruptive, and recurrent. They may also have a particular theme, such as skepticism, presence of contaminants, damage, religious convictions, unpleasant sexual fantasies, perfectionist tendencies, or a dread of losing control.
Those who suffer from this condition have often expressed their disappointment with how the disorder has been portrayed on public platforms such as movies and TV shows, which are platforms that can influence how people end up perceiving various concepts. While there are movies like The Aviator (2004), As Good As It Gets (1997), and Unstuck: An OCD Kids Movie (2017), which have managed to successfully portray the disorder with impressive accuracy, there were other movies like What About Bob? (1991), Matchstick Men (2003), and Mommie Dearest (1981) displayed characters acting out sequences which spewed stereotypical behaviours of an individual with OCD. Unfortunately, the movies with inaccurate portrayals went on to become box office-breaking hit movies, hence giving us an understanding of the flawed perception of the viewers of OCD. This not only reinforces such stereotypes but also exposes individuals with OCD to vulnerable situations with minimal social support.
Such inaccurate portrayals often lead to the trivialization of the disorder, which negatively impacts those individuals who need support to cope with the effects of a disorder that they are genuinely suffering from. There is a section of the public who claims that calling out such downplaying portrayals is “reinforcing political correctness” hence making those around me uncomfortable. If that’s the case, then so be it. Discomfort means that something is different. Educating societies with the right knowledge should be our duty as social citizens. And when it comes to supporting those suffering from mental disorders such as OCD, moral support should be something that is to be provided unconditionally. Relegating the seriousness of a multifaceted disorder such as this can cause irreparable damage: to the individual suffering from it and the unfiltered minds of those in our communities. OCD is not a punchline, it does not constitute dark humour. It is a clinically accepted and researched condition which in certain situations debilitates individuals from even performing their day-to-day tasks properly. As citizens of our community, we must stand up against these puny, devaluing statements and replace them with aware and empathetic words that show support and understanding.
References
Alcee, M. (2003, February 3). Who’s Trivializing OCD? Psychology Today. https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/live-life-creatively/202304/whos-trivializing-ocd
Choosing Therapy. (2023). The 15 Best Shows & movies about OCD behaviors. Choosing Therapy. https://www.choosingtherapy.com/movies-about-ocd/
Clifton, C., & Clifton, C. (2023b, June 21). “I’m so #OCD”: A Content Analysis of How Women Portray OCD on TikTok - The Professional Counselor. The Professional Counselor - The official journal of the National Board for Certified Counselors, Inc. and Affiliates (NBCC). https://tpcjournal.nbcc.org/im-so-ocd-a-content-analysis-of-how-women-portray-ocd-on-tiktok/
Hodges, C. (2020). No, We Don’t Want or Need OCD. Ever. OCD Gamechangers. https://ocdgamechangers.com/no-we-dont-want-or-need-ocd-ever/
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