I was told by a mental health professional today that although I still have a lot of anxiety, my OCD improvement has come on in leaps and bounds. And looking back over the past few years, I… see it? Blows my mind in some ways. You can barely tell I have it now. I just wish I could go back in time and erase all the horrible, gross situations it caused.
This comic is a little different than what I usually do but I worked real hard on it—Maybe I’ll make more infographic stuff in the future this ended up being fun. Hope you learned something new :)
The IOCDF’s website can also help you find support groups, therapy, and has lots of online guides and resources as well if you or a loved one is struggling with the disorder. It is very comprehensive!
Reblog to teach your followers about OCD
(But also not reblogging doesn’t make you evil, silly goose)
This has nailed it harder than any other comic I’ve read.
“intrusive thought” gets thrown around by assholes talking about putting strainers on their heads or stepping on a leaf who in the next sentence will say “if your thoughts are about actually hurting people they should put you in a psych ward”. compulsions and rituals get seen as proof you’re “crazy”. ocd insight CAN be delusional, even. pocd and sexual ocd is especially demonized, though even something as “harmless” (to others. not *us*) as contamination OCD is still mocked, belittled, and seen as a sign something is fundamentally wrong with you. I have seen people twice my age advocate for violence against anyone who thinks the way I’ve been forced by my mental illness to think since i was 6, maybe 7 years old.
OCD is not destigmatized.
This very day I saw the phrase “you OCD freaks” in an article. It was incredibly disheartening.
My entire life has been marred by OCD and well… You’ve seen the results in previous posts I guess. I’m looking for ways to “hack” it. There must be ways, right?
I know, I’m supposed to be on my sort-of blogging break. However, when I read about a certain article published by The Wall Street Journal on Tuesday (31st March), I had to come out of my box and address it. To be honest, I didn’t really want to taint my blog with this fantastic piece of journalism, and part of me was thinking “don’t do it, you might just kick the shit out of your laptop in the process.” However, as I was washing up this evening I found the rage building up and I needed to get it out.
If you’re not sure what the F I’m on about, earlier this week The Wall Street Journal published an article entitled We All Need OCD Now. I’m sure you’ll probably know why I have a problem with this just from the title. Now, the eagle eyed among you will…
Passing along. (My OCD is not really germ-related, but my god, with what’s in the news I cannot imagine the hell a lot of people are going through right now.)
Ah, an epidemic. That special time when everyone suddenly realises that maybe, just maybe, they should be washing their hands more often (apparently a lot of folks seem to view this practice as optional rather than essential). Whilst sufferers like myself sit back in the smug knowledge that we’ve been washing our hands properly, not shaking hands and opening doors using bits of kitchen paper for years, the rest of the world has a nasty case of sudden-onset OCD.
If you arelike me, a long time OCD suffering germ-phobe with emetophobia to boot then you probably don’t need to be told how important it is to wash your hands properly.
For those of you though, that think hand washing is a waste of time and that germs somehow just ‘bounce’ off you harmlessly due to some hitherto unknown superpower you have –…
If you were horrified by this story, as I was, here’s a reminder that OCD didn’t cause this person to throw a small child off a balcony, and neither did any other condition. He did it because he was a horrible person, nothing more, nothing less.
OCD is a tumor on a person’s morality. If you’re afraid of becoming like this guy, your OCD will needle away at you and make you do compulsions, “If I turn the lights off twice before leaving the room, that means I’m not the sort of person who would try to kill a child.” I’ve been there. But – you’re fine. Honestly, you are. There’s no link between OCD and murder, absolutely none.
This story has been bouncing around the internet for the past couple days. I’ve heard people saying “She must have had OCD!” but so what if she had? She did something truly impressive here. She might have preserved old TV shows that would’ve otherwise been lost. (Doctor Who fans will recognise the pain of that.) This story has also served to remind me I need to really work on digitizing me and my mother’s three or so boxes worth of VHS tapes from the ’90s before they’re lost forever.
So from one Overly Devoted Archivist to another, thank you, Marion Stokes.
by Zoe Butcher (OCD Girl’s alter ego)
