OCD is probably the only mental illness I can think of that isn’t bad..

It just means you don’t like being dirty and overly clean. It’s better than being dirty and never cleaning, or not taking care of yourself and having poor hygiene, people won’t be able to stand sitting next to you or being around you. Has anyone ever thought this?

Reply 1

Anonymous #1

*you like being overly clean

Reply 2

squeakysquirrel

Original post by Anonymous

Then you have clearly never met anyone with full blown OCD. To get to the point where you cannot even manage the simplest of tasks without a set of rituals. It is awful

Reply 3

Holly jade

Original post by Anonymous

What you’re talking about is what everyone thinks OCD is, but it’s not, many people with it cannot leave the house, have to excessively wash their hands until they bleed, are extremely paranoid etc

Reply 4

Anonymous #1

Original post by squeakysquirrel

Then you have clearly never met anyone with full blown OCD. To get to the point where you cannot even manage the simplest of tasks without a set of rituals. It is awful

My dad is a little OCD, my dads mum or my gran is very OCD, her house is squeaky clean and does not like it when a drip of water falls on the floor in the toilets, so yes I know people with OCD.

I on the other hand am the opposite, I had poor hygiene as it is and only bathed once a week, and when depression hit me I started bathing once a month, and struggled to start bathing once a week. Which is better, being OCD or dirty?

Reply 5

Obolinda

Volunteer Team

Original post by Anonymous

My dad is a little OCD, my dads mum or my gran is very OCD, her house is squeaky clean and does not like it when a drip of water falls on the floor in the toilets, so yes I know people with OCD.

Your Dad was diagnosed with being a "little OCD"? Do you realise that people with OCD do not just consist of people who have obsessions and compulsions about keeping clean? And if the ritualistic behaviour associated with the urge to keep clean is causing your hand to blister, constant anxiety, etc, how is the "good" or "helpful"?

You are clearly very ignorant, try having a read of this.
https://www.nhs.uk/conditions/obsessive-compulsive-disorder-ocd/

Reply 6

Anonymous #1

Original post by Obolinda

I wasn’t being ignorant, I’m not Albert Einstein I don’t know everything, I read about that just now and I know it’s not just about being overly clean. I thought it was and that was it. Clearly there was more to it than that.

Reply 7

Obolinda

Volunteer Team

Original post by Anonymous

Ignorant means "lacking knowledge, information, or awareness about a particular thing.". So you were, which is fine, I'm ignorant about many things too. It wasn't an insult.

Reply 8

Democracy

I think you're going by the pop culture/sitcom definition of OCD - which is obviously incorrect.

OCD is a serious condition and is not about cleanliness, this is completely missing the point. Dealing with distressing and intrusive thoughts which compel you to do certain things over and over again is not some sort of secret evolutionary advantage.

Reply 9

withered.rose

Original post by Anonymous

Ok, that is one of the biggest misconceptions of OCD. If you even conducted a small part of research before conducting that statement, I think it would be quite obvious that it definitely isn’t ‘not bad’. It affects people in so many different ways to different extents, as other people have said, it can be very difficult to even live with. Educate yourself on it before posting next time, your statement is purely ignorant to what you aren’t talking about, and if it wasn’t, I don’t think you would be posting anonymously.

Reply 10

Anonymous #2

deal with extremely violent & explicit intrusive thoughts involving your family & friends every single day for even just a week and tell me if you still think OCD isn’t that bad.

Reply 11

Anonymous #3

hygiene has nothing to do with ocd? it can do it some cases but for a lot of people with ocd mess or hygiene doesn’t affect them? ocd is debilitating, google is free

Reply 12

Anonymous #4

OCD isn't just 'wanting things to be clean'. It can be about cleanliness, but even then it's obsessive and compulsive. That's the point. They might wash their hands until they bleed/are raw, shower multiple times a day etc. Having a cleanliness type of OCD (don't know if there's a clinical term for it but you get what I mean) isn't just liking things to be neat and shiny, though it can be part of it.
That's not the only type of OCD though. OCD can also involve intrusive thoughts (if I don't do this exact thing at this exact time everyday, I/my friends/family will die/something bad will happen etc), obsessive counting, which can co-inside with the intrusive thoughts (I have to flip this light switch x times to keep myself safe at night). The whole point of OCD is that it has NEGATIVE effect on your life. It's a DISORDER. You say that when you had a depressive episode you didn't shower or bathe for up to a month at a time, and that's horrible, and very common among people with depression. But the scale goes both ways. It's bad to not shower or bath for a month, but it's also bad for you to be doing it multiple times a day, washing your hands for 5 minutes whenever you need to, or even when you don't.
It's not your fault, necessarily. In the media, OCD is very much presented as just a cute little quirk, just neat and tidy, without bleeding hands or constant fears they've left the door open while their out etc. But there is a reason it's classified as a disorder and a mental illness.