Stop being obsessive about hygiene
Ihad to write this article tonight after hearing a news anchor state, “We should all have a little OCD (Obsessive Compulsive Disorder) at this time in our life.” What an absolutely ridiculous statement. We would never wish for a little depression upon the population if the world got to just be really happy, and we would never wish for a hypomanic episode to make the world a more energetic place if everyone were just slowing down too much, so why do we think that it is OK to have a little OCD?
Probably because OCD is misunderstood, due to the fact that it has been the butt of jokes and the plot of ‘funny’ movies and TV shows. But, it is not funny to people who have OCD. Further, statistics show that the kind of OCD that is often referred to when we sadly wish we had, “a little OCD” is not even the main presentation of OCD.
So, want to know what you are wishing for when you make this statement? You would be wishing that some of the most disturbing thoughts, blasphemous images, or darkest urges your mind could come up with would just keep repeating themselves over and over again. People do not just do cleaning and straightening compulsions because they like to have a put together home.
They do these compulsions because they believe that not doing them would mean that a catastrophe could occur. They think that doing these activities will, just for a moment, give them relief from a mental health disorder that the World Health Organization has called one of the top ten most disabling conditions in the world.
“A little OCD,” would mean that you would spend at least an hour of your day in the greatest worry that you have ever experienced in your life, and you would continue to have that worry every day for decades. The record for one of my patients was 70 years of suffering with OCD, and she finally decided to get treatment because she wanted the last few remaining years of her life to actually have some enjoyment in them.
OCD does not make you a better cleaner or a better organiser, or a better checker. With the nickname “The Doubting Disorder,” OCD leads you to doubt that you cleaned enough, so you continue to do so until your hands bleed from excessive use of soap, sanitiser, bleach, ammonia, and other chemicals that should never touch our skin. OCD does not care if your skin gets burned, cracked, or peels from these chemicals — OCD just cares that it was satisfied enough with your cleaning ritual. In fact, OCD will look at your hands the next time it tells you to wash them and make you wash them even more because now your hands are cracked and burned and peeling, so now germs have an easier way to get in, so more cleaning is the only possible solution!
Or, you could be plagued with the notion that you could be spreading the virus around to other people, and you would spend hours checking in on people that you might have come in contact with to see if anything has happened to them, trying to constantly reassure your OCD that you are not actually a murdered for giving the Covid-19 virus to someone else.
No one wants this disorder — not even people with this disorder — not even “a little bit.”
So, let’s all work on trying not to belittle the OCD community anymore. Let’s all play nice in the sandbox and support each other in a way that is not a put down to people with a very devastating mental health condition.
OCD does not make you a better cleaner or a better organiser, or a better checker.