Stop being proud of your cleaning OCD
“I have a cleaning OCD.” “I am so OCD about cleaning, believe me, it’s a blessing - keeps my house organised.”
Haven’t we all heard or spoken these phrases at some point in our lives? Aren’t we inured to accept these as normal? Do we understand the term OCD or have we ever tried to google it? What do we rather do? Hear a fancy term and gratuitously adopt it in our language.
OCD stands for obsessive-compulsive disorder. It is a serious anxiety disorder that affects roughly three per cent of the Australian population, one per cent of the US population, and one per cent of the Indian population (according to the data available on national websites of these countries).
OCD is the interference of obsessive, intrusive thoughts that compel the impacted person to perform compulsive actions. The behaviour comprises two parts - intrusive thoughts and compulsive actions. The thoughts can be disturbing, heart-wrenching and profoundly gripping - gripping to the point that it sucks the vitality of sufferers. The thoughts compel the sufferers to capitulate into performing specific actions that relieve the thoughts. That is, the sufferers are constantly worried that terrible things would happen if they do not perform the compulsive action. If specific action is not performed, it could lead to anxiety, stress, and more intrusive thoughts. At times, it also accompanies panic attacks, stress, and depression. It could be emotionally draining, could lead to brain fog, and may also interfere with daily activities. I will not enlist examples of thoughts and subsequent actions as those are beyond the scope of this article but just going to say that OCD is more than hand washing or meticulously cleaning/organising and sometimes, it is not at all about cleaning.
Can you imagine how insanely distressing it would be to be aware of these thoughts and feel that you have lost all custody over them? Now let us compare the casual fashionable way of complimenting our cleaning habits with the aforementioned distressing condition. “Can you please pick up that shirt from the sofa and keep it in your wardrobe, I like to be organised and this kicks my OCD.” vs “Please stop doing this action, this particular action triggers excessive thoughts and impels me to perform certain actions and not doing those would bring bad luck to me and my family.” Simple obsession for cleanliness or organising stuff is hugely different from OCD.
If you do not refer to a cyst as cancer, do not call your personality type OCD. Stop complimenting your cleaning skills - if not being clean/organised does not trigger anxious thoughts in your brain, does not cause you to panic, does not compel you to perform compulsive actions to relieve that obsession then you do not have OCD. Casually referring to cleaning/organising skills as OCD simply trivialises the suffering of those who are experiencing unbearable thoughts. We have no understanding of what is going on in someone else’s mind and our casual comments can be devouring and might shrivel the person going through this.
Now that we know that OCD is not about cleaning skills, we should remember to be mindful of our words and actions. Take two minutes to ponder over this thought - are our words helping remove the stigma around mental illness or contributing to the already unfortunate state of the mental health system? Are our actions causing more harm than good?
What else can we do?
Be more compassionate. Understand that sometimes our words can have a significant impact on someone else’s life. If you know someone who is suffering from any mental health problem, be kind to them. Help them in seeking help from professionals. Be there for them. Additionally, help create more equality between mental and physical illness - mental illness is like any kind of physical illness that could affect our body and requires medical attention in the same way. Help fight the stigma – educate yourself and others around you.
If you or someone you know is going through anxiety, stress, depression or any other kind of illness, seek help. Every problem has a solution, yours might just be with a doctor near you.