It’s back to school season, so my job at Staples is very hectic. Customers are running around trying to get the best deals on the ridiculously specific school supplies that they are required to have, employees are running around trying to help those who need it, and some parents lose their cool after their kids have asked for the same fuzzy pen for the last 20 minutes. I try to do my best to help the customers as much as I can, explaining how products work and suggesting cheaper options for them, but I can only do so much.

The other day, I was helping a woman pick out the correct scientific calculator for her son that is entering middle school when I heard a family walk past. Human instinct made me look over at the mother and her three children, and I noticed one of the daughters touching everything on a particular shelf. Her mother exclaimed, “Stop touching everything! You’re driving me insane!” a comment that really struck a chord with me. I didn’t say anything to the family, as I was helping another customer, but I continued to think about that girl and her mother for the rest of the day, and in the days since. I was worried for the poor girl, because I saw myself in her.

I have a mental illness that’s called obsessive-compulsive disorder, or OCD. Many people know of it, but they don’t know the effects of the chemical imbalance that forces us to do “strange” and “weird” things. When I was in elementary school, I was terrified of playing tag with my friends, because the idea of being targeted made me panic to the point to where I felt as if I couldn’t trust my friends anymore. I couldn’t play with water balloons, water guns, or silly string because of the same reaction.

To me, it made sense. I didn’t want to be hit, so I was scared that I would be. It wasn’t until I started therapy during my sophomore year of high school, nearly eight years later, that I was told that my fear wasn’t common, and that it was a symptom of my anxiety, another mental illness that I have that results from my OCD. OCD doesn’t make sense, but to the person it affects? It makes perfect sense.

So I immediately saw myself in that little girl. What if her brain was telling her that she needed to touch everything on every shelf in order to be safe? What if she was “taking” all the germs from the items so that other customers, including her mother and siblings? Of course, she very well could just be an ornery child, but you never know. I wanted so badly to tell that mother to ask her child’s pediatrician to look for symptoms of OCD, because the sooner you start treatment options, the better.

According to this website on the signs and symptoms of OCD, about 1 in 100 children have OCD, while 1 in 40 adults have it. It’s important to look into the symptoms of OCD with children who are around nine years old, so that you can start treatment, and therefore recovery, as soon as possible. Another thing to realize is that those who have OCD commonly have another mental illness as well, such as depression, eating disorders, anxiety disorders, or any combination of those.

You might be surprised by the amount of people who have OCD. Some examples include Cameron Diaz, Leonardo DiCaprio, Howie Mandel, David Backham, and Justin Timberlake, all people who have made a name for themselves and have become successful in their careers, despite their constant struggle with mental illness.

If a child has (or seems to have) a mental illness, please don’t be afraid of them. They aren’t monsters, they just have a battle to fight that they might not know about yet. Growing up with a mental illness can be incredibly hard at times, but it is possible to survive. Mental illnesses never go away, they only subside with lots of hard work, determination, and perseverance over long periods of time. Every single person has a fight to fight as some point in their lives, it’s just that these children have an invisible one. Just because their illness is not visible to you, doesn’t mean it isn’t important or completely valid. Those children have to fight constantly every day to be able to live their life happy and healthy, which can be very intimidating -- the last thing that they need is discrimination because you might not understand exactly what they are going through.

So don’t be afraid of the kid who has to touch everything -- help them instead. They will thank you later.