One thing I wish people knew about OCD is....
I don't WANT to pick at my skin until it bleeds, I just really really really have trouble stopping. Believe me, it upsets me as much as it upsets you. I'm not trying to hurt myself.
Also not being able to clean is OCD just as much as not being able to stop cleaning. And yeah, dirty icky stuff upsets me, but sometimes it causes so much anxiety that I can't even acknowledge it.
Also if you say you're OCD about something it's only a little annoying, but if you start trying to convince me you have OCD BC you like to organize your closet, I'm 100% going to side eye you.
@Mayk221 I pick at my fingers until they bleed and it's so embarrassing. I can't stop either. I've done it since I was a kid. I work at an elementary school and the little kids are always asking me what's wrong with my fingers. I know that means adults notice too, they are just too tactful to say anything.
@Mayk221
So true. I wish people realized that having OCD isn't just about being super neat and organized. I have that trouble too....I like to be clean, but sometimes it gets so overwhelming that it becomes hard to face it. I have rooms in my house I just don't even look at.
It can be a process to be able to get to a place where most people start at by default. They do not need go through rituals and work through anxiety in order to be able to perform simple daily tasks.
Frustrating.
I do not want to bite at my fingers until there is nothing left besides bloody stubs. I do not want to walk down my driveway four times to check that I closed the mailbox after getting the mail. I dont want to obsess over embarrassing things that have happened to me ages ago. I want to live a healthy, normal life, but I cant. I have OCD, and yes that gives me certain tendencies, but that does not give anyone the right to judge me or anyone else with OCD. We have tendencies, sometimes they seem burdensome to those around us, but they dont realize that they burden us just as much if not more.
It can be beneficial as an example to others...before I was caught in the claws of major depression I had OCD. At work I had the neatest office desk. I was particular about where I put my pen even, always in the same spot and aligned...my house was the same...even now I have remnants of that because I always keep the keys, phone, pen, wallet, cigs and lighter and remote in the same place allqays...
My point is that an OCD ina small social group can influence them to be better...(when we had power shortages at work I started cleaning my desk and computer and everyone followed suit by their own will...)
We can't just "snap out of it".
I wish people knew OCD isn't always being a germaphobe. There are plenty of other kinds people are struggling with.
It's not a cute or quirky trait
I wish people were more educated about OCD. Typically people just think it's "ooh everything must be perfect at all times and clean and organized..." Yes, thats definitely a type of OCD but there's soo many more kinds. That's why I had no idea I had OCD for a long time until I was educated on it (mine has to do with rituals.)
