The truth behind OCD
In today’s society, it appears that Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (OCD) is treated more like a joke rather than what it really is - a mental disorder.
“OCD kaayo kaba (You’re so OCD), Niandar na pud ang OCD nimo (Your OCD is acting out again), Nganong OCD man ka? (Why are you OCD?)”
You might have heard those phrases, or other phrases within those contexts, at least once in your life. Some of your family members, friends, colleagues, or even strangers on the street have said it without knowing what OCD is.
Psychometrician Louise Tapiz defines OCD through explaining the criteria under this disorder.
“When there is presence of obsession, which means having persistent thoughts to an extent that it may cause a person anxiety and distress, then it is possible that the person has OCD. If there is compulsion which is when a person does those thoughts and has repetitive behavior, and this is observed for more than six months, then that person has OCD,” Tapiz explained.
She further added if there is presence of both obsession and compulsion it is possible for that person to have OCD.
“The fours D’s should be present in a person if you are checking to see if that person has OCD which is distress, disfunction, deviance, and danger,” the psychometrician stressed.
She described that “danger” is when a person with OCD symptoms are already a harm to themselves or others. Anxiety is common among people with OCD which could cause extreme reactions when or if it is triggered.
Monthly Index of Medical Specialities Today (MIMS Today) revealed in a 2016 online article that 17 to 20 percent of Filipinos experience psychiatric disorders. The common diagnosis are depression, schizophrenia, and anxiety disorders which is where OCD is categorized under.
Considering the stigma of mental health in the Philippines, the anxiety-ridden are forced to suffer in silence. According to Tapiz, like those who have depression and other mental disorders, a person with OCD will mostly feel denial at first.
“Be careful what you say in public, never joke about mental disorders, or even talk about them when you don’t know what they are,” Tapiz said.
There are misconceptions regarding OCD that lead to people self-diagnosing, or diagnosing others. If you ask every psychometrician, psychologist, and psychiatrist if OCD is only associated to those who want everything to be clean and perfect, the answer would be a definite no.
“When people hear or say OCD they immediately think perfection or germophobe, but really, people who have OCD mao ni sila ang dili mahimutang (these are the people who are restless),” Tapiz clarified.
She also said that only licensed clinical psychologists and psychiatrist can properly diagnose a person with OCD. Through standardized test conducted by professionals can a person be truly diagnosed, not through the free tests people access online like in Facebook.
Clinical Psychologist Randy Dellosa described through a blog post how a person with OCD behaves on a regular basis.
“Washing hands again and again, switching lights on and off, repeatedly locking and unlocking doors. These are just some of the compulsions of people with OCD,” Dellosa posted.
He added that OCD is not as amusing as how people make it look in movie or tv roles. A consensus from the National Statistics Office revealed that mental illnesses places third in the most common forms of morbidity for Filipinos.
That means that OCD is a serious illness, and a lot of Filipinos are experiencing it without even knowing it. This disorder is not something to be found out through a test on Facebook with the title “Just How Sensitive is your OCD Radar?”
Speak with sensitivity about mental illness or don’t speak about it at all.
The first step to ending the stigma on mental health is to get rid of the ignorance. Learn about OCD, end the stigma.
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Fatima Jazmin is a student of Ateneo de Davao University