I believe that ignorance leads people to think / claim that they have OCD. I used to think that I had OCD but after watching a documentary on it I realise that I’m just a little particular about how things should be.
The biggest issue with most of these issues is that everyone has something a little bit like them. Everyone gets distracted or washes their hands or is sad. The difference is how much that thing interferes with your life. My ADHD causes all kinds of major problems just from the executive dysfunction side alone, let alone some of the other joys that come with having it. People want to feel special in any way they can and sometimes cosplaying their mental health is the way.
Even if you have a minor form of OCD. OCD right and proper gets actively in the way of living. Indirect unintentional self harm either in mental or physical is not uncommon.
Unmanageable OCD is scary. Had a good friend in high school with serious OCD issues, which lead to hoarding issues and them passing away a few years back due to none of their family helping them and the mental health support in the USA being awful.
OCD is a spectrum disorder like autism. If you think you have it ask a mental health care professional. Most of the time its very manageable and has no impact on your quality of life. But it’s better to seek help earlier then later.
That all said, there’s a good chance the book girl in the comic is autistic or has OCD. But not in a major form of them.
I think you’re right in the main. And I also think that some people don’t realize they have a disorder until they see it manifest in others and realize “shit I do that too.” Sometimes they are right, sometimes not.
I think people like rationalizing their behaviors so that they don’t seem weird. When really they are just being themselves.
Behaviors become mental illnesses when they start to affect other parts of your life. Organizing your books by color is unusual and quirky, but not a mental illness.
If you can’t leave a library because you have to organize their books by color, then it’s a mental illness.
My kid has autism. He once had a complete panic attack because we wouldn’t let him stay to organize the bottles at total win and more. He has never been diagnosed with OCD and my understanding after talking to his neurologist about it is that this was a stim for him, and not necessarily OCD behavior. There have been other instances all through his childhood like this one, and I can’t help but think that having a completely different disorder or Neurodivergence also adds to people self diagnosing because there’s way too many people who don’t know they’re neurodivergent.
I was straight up diagnosed with OCD as a child because they really didn’t want to believe a girl had autism. Throughout my life I’ve struggled with compulsions when I’m mentally struggling and had zero issues when things are otherwise calm (sometimes I’ll go years without any symptoms). I’d never thought of it as a stim, but it absolutely is a thing for me to focus on to release mental pressure/sort through inputs. That’s totally a stim.
Sorry to do the thing that this thread is about in the thread.
Don’t apologize. It’s okay to express yourself and there’s nothing wrong with relating your story.
I was diagnosed with ADD (now called ADHD inattentive type) when I was a kid and got basically no support for it because my younger brother was diagnosed with Autism at or around the same time. It turns out my sister also has ADHD (and was diagnosed as an adult), and got no support and stims are fairly common. There’s a lot of behaviors in my own life that I didn’t recognize as stims until years later. It seems a lot of us feel fell through the cracks so to speak.
People also tend to point towards the most extreme versions of ocd in response. I have diagnosed ocd and it’s just the way my anxiety disorder manifests. I get fixated on a point of anxiety and spiral around it and before treatment would develop rituals to prevent those points. Locking the car door three times meant I was sure the door was locked for example.
I still have low key anxiety every time I go on vacation that I left the door unlocked
I believe that ignorance leads people to think / claim that they have OCD. I used to think that I had OCD but after watching a documentary on it I realise that I’m just a little particular about how things should be.
The biggest issue with most of these issues is that everyone has something a little bit like them. Everyone gets distracted or washes their hands or is sad. The difference is how much that thing interferes with your life. My ADHD causes all kinds of major problems just from the executive dysfunction side alone, let alone some of the other joys that come with having it. People want to feel special in any way they can and sometimes cosplaying their mental health is the way.
For me it’s the opposite. Simply because I like to stay organized and prepared, everyone keeps telling me I have OCD. I don’t think I do. Maybe?
And then the same people go watch videos of “oddly satisfying” organized things.
Even if you have a minor form of OCD. OCD right and proper gets actively in the way of living. Indirect unintentional self harm either in mental or physical is not uncommon.
Unmanageable OCD is scary. Had a good friend in high school with serious OCD issues, which lead to hoarding issues and them passing away a few years back due to none of their family helping them and the mental health support in the USA being awful.
OCD is a spectrum disorder like autism. If you think you have it ask a mental health care professional. Most of the time its very manageable and has no impact on your quality of life. But it’s better to seek help earlier then later.
That all said, there’s a good chance the book girl in the comic is autistic or has OCD. But not in a major form of them.
For some reason people just love self diagnosing with mental illness.
I think you’re right in the main. And I also think that some people don’t realize they have a disorder until they see it manifest in others and realize “shit I do that too.” Sometimes they are right, sometimes not.
I think people like rationalizing their behaviors so that they don’t seem weird. When really they are just being themselves.
Behaviors become mental illnesses when they start to affect other parts of your life. Organizing your books by color is unusual and quirky, but not a mental illness.
If you can’t leave a library because you have to organize their books by color, then it’s a mental illness.
My kid has autism. He once had a complete panic attack because we wouldn’t let him stay to organize the bottles at total win and more. He has never been diagnosed with OCD and my understanding after talking to his neurologist about it is that this was a stim for him, and not necessarily OCD behavior. There have been other instances all through his childhood like this one, and I can’t help but think that having a completely different disorder or Neurodivergence also adds to people self diagnosing because there’s way too many people who don’t know they’re neurodivergent.
I was straight up diagnosed with OCD as a child because they really didn’t want to believe a girl had autism. Throughout my life I’ve struggled with compulsions when I’m mentally struggling and had zero issues when things are otherwise calm (sometimes I’ll go years without any symptoms). I’d never thought of it as a stim, but it absolutely is a thing for me to focus on to release mental pressure/sort through inputs. That’s totally a stim.
Sorry to do the thing that this thread is about in the thread.
Don’t apologize. It’s okay to express yourself and there’s nothing wrong with relating your story.
I was diagnosed with ADD (now called ADHD inattentive type) when I was a kid and got basically no support for it because my younger brother was diagnosed with Autism at or around the same time. It turns out my sister also has ADHD (and was diagnosed as an adult), and got no support and stims are fairly common. There’s a lot of behaviors in my own life that I didn’t recognize as stims until years later. It seems a lot of us
feelfell through the cracks so to speak.Huh, organization as a stim. I guess toss another one in the bucket for me.
They have officialdiagnosophobia
People also tend to point towards the most extreme versions of ocd in response. I have diagnosed ocd and it’s just the way my anxiety disorder manifests. I get fixated on a point of anxiety and spiral around it and before treatment would develop rituals to prevent those points. Locking the car door three times meant I was sure the door was locked for example.
I still have low key anxiety every time I go on vacation that I left the door unlocked