Teressa Boatman-- comparison essay

OCD vs “OCD”

OCD is not a joke. OCD is a clinically diagnosed mental disorder for which it stands, “Obsessive compulsive disorder.” Many people say they have “OCD” but have never been diagnosed by a doctor for having it. There is a clear difference between being a perfectionist and actually having clinical OCD. Though, not to blame the people for this ignorance of the difference. Socially observed OCD and clinical OCD are two completely different terms with real OCD being more difficult to deal with.

What is OCD? OCD is a mental illness that affects one's everyday life, making life a struggle to do simple things. With OCD, people have these almost silent voices in their heads telling them to do things to prevent anything bad from happening. People with this illness often blame themselves for bad things happening even if they were not there to have done anything about it. See, these “voices” tell you to do your compulsions, or rituals, so that you don’t cause bad things to happen, even if you are completely unrelated to the situation. If you do not do the compulsions correctly, if anything bad in the world happens, you will blame yourself, even if it is completely impossible to be related to the happening. There is always a sense of blame of oneself when they have OCD. OCD is very hard to understand, admittedly.

How do you get OCD? Most people do not understand the leading causes of OCD, for instance, according to, Alice Klein, a reporter for “News Scientist,” says: it is hereditary. You can inherent this trait from parents or grandparents. Most people with OCD struggle every day with a ritual. Rituals being something as simple as touching a light switch 17 times before they can move onto another thing to do. Us with OCD have obsessions. Obsessions are constant thoughts that we have to do something a certain way or else something bad will happen; our brains are obsessively overthinking. Then, there are compulsions, the things we do to calm our mind. This is how we act out our obsessions. Could be as simple as, getting into bed a certain way or maybe just a constant amount of counting. For example, most people suffer with counting, and numbering things with clinical OCD. Though these things do not sound harmful, this disorder can have severe consequences.

There are many differences between what I’d call “socially inspired OCD” and clinical OCD. See, many people believe that since they like to clean, they have this disease, yet they may not know what people with OCD really struggle with. Most people who really do not have OCD but claim too, believe the acronym stands for “obsessive cleaning disorder,” which really out shames the true meaning. These problems with OCD are completely difficult to live with.

Some people do not know they have OCD because the rituals become normal for that person. These normal feelings are because the brain is getting used to this stress coming from this disorder. Medicine can be used to treat real OCD. though, even after this disorder is treated, sometimes the problems still follow them along in life, becoming habits. These habits can affect the person's time management, making them prone to being late. Rituals can control one's life.

People with OCD often shame themselves around others. If they do their compulsions around someone, it could embarrass them, however, If they do not do this, the thoughts will haunt them, still. It is important for people with OCD to have support from friends or family. Though, OCD is hard to understand, it is important for someone, at least one person to know they have this problem. People with OCD need to know that they are not alone.

So, what is Socially deemed OCD? It is where people say they have clinical OCD, but really do not. Most people who do this say that they like to clean, or they are organized. Though, yes, some people with real OCD do have to organize, or be clean, but the main difference is: one is actually a mental disorder. Having real OCD is like having a problem you can’t get rid of, making everyday life a struggle. To Make think simple, this “OCD” is fake, and most people say they have this because they are: bored, trying to be funny, or for attention.

Having OCD is also closely related to having anxiety. Because if they do not do these compulsions correctly, they think they are the reason for all bad things. Is it very hard, and people with this problem and constantly thinking something bad is going to happen. This is yet another way of how clinical OCD is worse than socially deemed “OCD.”

Though, the two can be relatively similar. Sure, someone with clinical OCD could clean all of the time, and someone with socially associated OCD could, too. It’s very hard to say that one has OCD without being actually being diagnosed by a doctor, in fact, it is the only way to know. Going to a psychiatrist is a way to find the diagnoses. Most people are unaware of how dangerous OCD can be. Sometimes, the voices in your head encourage you to do bad things to get the thoughts out of your head. Some people harm themselves, or worse, kill themselves. Sometimes, it is just too much to handle, this disease is not to be taken lightly. All of this makes it important for people to be diagnosed properly with OCD.

OCD is very real, thousands of people struggle with it daily, like myself. I couldn’t be mad though, that people may say they have this illness without actually having it, they were just simply taught incorrect. It is good to understand it, though. Not to scare friends away but bring them closer together in a better understanding of each other. People with OCD are never alone. Clinical OCD and socially demonstrated OCD are completely different, however, clinical OCD is harder to deal with.