Misrepresented In Social Media

How Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder is misrepresented in different forms of media?

Phrases such as “I’m so OCD” or “I’m a bit OCD” dismiss this illness as a mere quirk rather than the serious condition it truly is. However, this is purely because various forms of media have tainted the image of numerous mental illnesses.

Obsessive–Compulsive Disorder is a severe anxiety-related condition where sufferers experience frequent intrusive and unwelcome obsessional thoughts, often followed by repetitive compulsions, impulses or urges to relieve the accumulated anxiety. Despite being ranked tenth in the top ten most disabling illnesses of any sort by the World Health Organisation, Obsessive Compulsive Disorder has received mockery due to how misunderstood

On the contrary, social media is quite an exception from this growing trend of political correctness. Social media is a communication platform in which lies can effortlessly be concealed as the truth, and due to the media’s impact on the true definition of mental health, much of society assume and label themselves as being “a bit OCD”. For example, some may believe that they exhibit symptons of the illness because they wash their hands before they eat. A normal person will clean their hands once or twice a day until they see that their hands are clean, while a victim of the illness would, on a quotidian basis, wash their hands ten to twenty times, until they feel that they are perfectly clean. The resulting fierce handwashing can potentially cause horrid blistering, horrendous scarring and ugly infection. This form of OCD is called Mental Contamination, and is seen as the stereotypical image of Obessive-Compulsive Disorder, where contact with supposed contaminated objects such as a railing, is seen as a death sentence. Because the illness is such a broad spectrum, people only seem to recognise this particular branch of OCD, completely disregarding all other