Obsessive Compulsive Disorder
Learn the answers to commonly asked questions through a broad range of perspectives!
What is it like for you to be a neurodivergent person? In your personal life? At school? At work?
“The fact that when everyone’s in bed I then go around, clean the candles, turn the lights on to the right setting, make sure everywhere is tidy.” - David Beckham [The BECKHAM Documentary]
“As I got a bit older I started to have frequent obsessions that I might have done something bad and that I needed to compulsively make lists of what those things might be. I had bizarre thoughts that I could cause someone to haemorrhage just by brushing against them, or kill someone just by thinking it. Some of this may not sound like OCD to your average reader, but it’s important to remember that to have OCD merely requires that you have obsessions (unwanted thoughts and images) and compulsions (the action, whether physical or mental, that you take in response), and that they cause you significant distress.” - Lily Bailey [The Guardian]
Have you faced misunderstandings from others? What were those misunderstandings?
“The biggest misconception about OCD is that it’s about being a perfectionist or liking things ‘just so.’ In reality, OCD isn’t really about anything. It just involves having obsessions and compulsions, and only some people with OCD have the straightening and tidying compulsions that we traditionally associate with OCD. Also people seem to think that OCD is a cute ‘quirk’ – many take pride in being ‘soooo super OCD about their pencil case'.’ But OCD is not enjoyable – if you ‘totally love being OCD’ then you do not have OCD.” - Lily Bailey [The Guardian]