If you can see the floor in my room, it's a good day. Due to constant busyness and chronic laziness, the state of my room might make one assume a tornado had recently blown through the area. At times, I get organized and have a pile on the floor for dirty clothes and a separate pile for clean clothes, but that's about the extent of thought put into organization. I've even gone to bed with a pile of laundry on my bed because I was too tired to move it, never mind put it away in my closet.
What I'm trying to say is that my room is always a mess. I also have diagnosed Obsessive Compulsive Disorder, or OCD.
My OCD has effected me ever since I could remember. When I was little I thought that my brain was being controlled by something scary, and in a sense it was. It was a disease. Over the years it has taken many forms, but over recent years my obsessions and compulsions started concerning food. My eating disorder has always been "fueled" by my OCD and consequently these two things have taken a toll on my mental and physical health. I've had to take a break from school, stop doing the things I love, and it has also worn down on relationships at times. I get extremely frustrated that I can't fully prevent obsessions, and many times these obsessions consume me. Which usually leads to performing a compulsion, which in turn feeds the obsession and starts a vicious cycle.
Society tends to take on a completely wrong view of OCD. A lot of people think that OCD just revolves around obsessive-compulsive cleaning. And it can, but the point of it being labeled a disorder is that it significantly effects the lives of those who have it. Many joke about it, chalking up organizational preferences (of which, we all have) to being "OCD" (Just a tip: saying that "he/she/etc is so OCD" does not make sense because it does not make sense to say that someone *is* obsessive compulsive disorder. It's like saying that someone is depression or someone is schizophrenia).
The following are pictures and gifs I found that depict a wrong view of Obsessive Compulsive Disorder and that depict a more correct view of Obsessive Compulsive Disorder.
Nice try internet, but no:
(Either directly referring to OCD or a search result when you google "OCD")
When the internet gets OCD right:
Mental health education is important because it enables us to respect and come alongside those who struggle with mental illness.
