MH&W Spotlight: Ever said, “I’m a little OCD”?
Language is a powerful tool. Here, we’ll take a look at the power of words in a mental health context, and how you can help raise awareness.
I wouldn't blame you entirely. Tons of mental health terminology has been co-opted to describe behaviour it doesn't represent - some fairly innocent, some downright vile.
OCD can be absolutely gutting though.
Imagine you’ve gotta catch a bus to work. It only comes once every 2 hours and there’s no other way to work. You’re packed and ready - you just need to check you’ve turned everything off…
…except even though you can visibly see the switches are off, your brain is like “Y𝘦𝘢𝘩 𝘣𝘶𝘵 𝘸𝘩𝘢𝘵 𝘪𝘧 𝘪𝘵 𝘪𝘴𝘯’𝘵 𝘰𝘧𝘧 - 𝘸𝘩𝘢𝘵 𝘪𝘧 𝘺𝘰𝘶 𝘣𝘶𝘳𝘯 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘩𝘰𝘶𝘴𝘦 𝘥𝘰𝘸𝘯. 𝘛𝘩𝘢𝘵 𝘸𝘰𝘶𝘭𝘥 𝘣𝘦 𝘰𝘯 𝘠𝘖𝘜”.
So you check again.
You think three times is a nice even number of checks. But nope - your brain tells you that maybe the last time you checked, the switch was actually on. So you check three more times…
…eventually, you call work and tell them there’s a transport issue. You sit on the couch, and catch your breath, ready to start checking again.
That’s my experience of it anyway. I’m sure there’s much worse too. It’s dead isolating, kinda like a real-life video game boss you just can’t beat,
Sounds familiar? Feel free to reach out. I am always willing to share my journey in the hope it helps others.
How is your mental health, friends?
Hey, I’m Dan. I’m a mental health writer.
I write blogs, newsletters, articles and web copy for mental health and wellbeing professionals and organisations.
If that sounds good, click my face for a chat.