This post is slightly off topic from the general ideas on my blog. However in attempt to spread awareness, I have decided to discuss mental illness in honour od World Mental Health Day came and passed. Although it has been over a week, I decided it is better to post late than never.
Mental illness can, and often is invisible. As long as there is stigma around mental illness, invisibility will endure.
How can we work together to end the stigma, to ensure that we are more accessible to those in need?
I want to discuss a kind of OCD, that is so rarely discussed, and is entirely ignored in the media.
How do you imagine OCD?
When it is depicted in the media, it is decided as a “visible” illness. One with excessive handwashing (Emma in Glee), cleaning compuslsions (Monica in Friends) and rigid in schedules (Sheldon in the Big Bang Theory).
While there is certainly validity to these depictions of OCD, we must understand that this is not the case for all.
Many experience OCD, in what is commonly known as Pure O-OCD.
Pure-O expresses self in debilitating and unwanted thoughts. These thoughts can take hours out of ones day While different for everyone, these thoughts can express themselves in a variety of ways, including obsessive thoughts about religiosity, sexuality, responsibility, and intense feelings of guilt etc.
How can you help end the stigma?
1. If someone opens up to you about their OCD- Do not respond with “You don’t look like you have OCD.”
2. Ban the phrase “I am/feel so OCD.” OCD is not a verb. Try replacing OCD with another illness; would you feel comfortable using the same phrase? This phrase is harmful, and furthers stigmatisation of OCD.
Don't judge your future until you have experienced it 