To scream at the next person..

[user1471559761]

Who says "oh I'm a bit OCD".
Keep hearing it and seeing it all over the place. I have horrendous OCD and spend hours every day checking things over and over and over until anxiety washes over me and I start shaking and sometimes crying with frustration and guilt. Every day.
OCD is not putting always putting your socks on before your jeans or always washing your hands after touching something dirty. It's something most people wouldn't even understand unless they lived with it every day. It destroys relationships and totally takes over the sufferers life. Rant over but I just hate hearing something that upsets me so much being trivialised as some kind of cool quirky illness!

[Noonesfool]

YANBU

People don't get how debilitating and distressing it can be.

[LemonScentedStickyBat]

Yanbu but people are unlikely to stop saying it unfortunately. I have a similar bee in my bonnet about people using "Tourette's" as shorthand for swearing or blurting things out. Really annoying.

[ThatsMyStapler]

now i really dont mean to trivialise the condition in any way at all, but is it something that can be in different degrees? Like you can be a little bit fat, but you cant be a little bit pregnant?

If you are sitting there, and something is preying on your mind, because its not tidy (for example) and being unable to settle until you have cleared it up

(again, i dont mean to be rude, or offensive)

[Sleeperandthespindle]

I have bees in all my bonnets about both of the above, and 'I'm a bit autistic' or 'oooh, I think we're all a bit autistic really'. So minimising of these conditions and no awareness of what they're really like.

[reader77]

YADefinitelyNBU.

Drives me mad.

[Amelie10]

Yanbu but it's just one of those things not worth losing it over. People will always be a 'little ocd, depressed, mental' etc. you may win on mn but a lot of people don't get it.

[Iliveinalighthousewiththeghost]

Ynbu. I inwardly seethe when people casually say. for example.
I'm awfully depressed they didn't have that dress in my size.
You'd know if you were depressed

[user1471559761]

Stapler, yes if you say worrying and anxious about something not sitting right then I would class that as OCD. Just hate people saying they have it when in reality it's not something they get anxious over. I think some people think it is a cool thing to have for some reason. Mine is the reason I am on ADs and having therapy.

[Wolfiefan]

The thing is I do have a bit of OCD. I'm not a full blown sufferer but my anxiety means I check and check the car is locked etc. Far more than any "normal" person but not enough to need treatment.

[BlancheDuBois2]

It drives me up the wall too. Stapler, I'm not sure (I'm not a Dr or anything!) but Mind seem to think it's only OCD when the compulsion is accompanied by an obsessive (and unwelcome) thought.

www.mind.org.uk/information-support/types-of-mental-health-problems/obsessive-compulsive-disorder-ocd/#.V7nm8cR4WnM

[Welshrainbow]

Definitely not unreasonable. Particularly hate when people say oh I'm a bit autistic because xyz.

[user1471559761]

If you are, not say

[ProseccoBitch]

OP can I ask you a question? I know that OCD is a very serious condition and that I don't have it, but I am what I would call obsessive about housework and how I do things, so I say 'I'm a bit obsessive about....' but this thread has made me wonder if that's OK to say or not, I just couldn't think of another way to describe it really.

[Hassled]

I do see your point but presumably there is a sliding scale? Your anxiety sounds awful to have to live with, and I'm sorry, but surely the people who do have to go through little routines before they feel they can relax, but who don't have the levels of anxiety that you do, are "a little bit OCD?". Or is there a better way to describe it?

As an example - either DH or I bolt the back gate at night. I have to check that it's bolted at least 3 times before I can sleep, even though I know really that it's bolted, and even though I will have a memory of bolting it. I've got out of bed many times to check it's bolted (when we've been burgled, it's been via access through the back gate). So is that "a little bit OCD" or is it something else?

[Hopelass]

YANBU OP I used to have some OCD tendencies but with CBT overcame most of them. I have noticed recently that it's become a lot more commonplace for people to say "oh I'm so OCD about ........." And I think, really? Are you really?
Completely understand where you are coming from

[ZigZagIntoTheBlue]

I used to work with a child with ocd and I saw first hand how hard it was for him to manage his anxieties in a secondary school setting. My now - colleague often says she's 'a little ocd' and it drives me mad. I have snapped before, you mean fussy not ocd but it never sinks in!

[Tastesjustlikecherrycola85]

YANBU

[RebelRogue]

I don't have OCD so please correct me if I'm wrong,but the (very simplistic way) i see it it's like this...if you do x because it needs to be done and you like it to be done it's not ocd, if you do it because YOU HAVE TO,otherwise a,b,c might happen,if you have to stop whatever you're doing because you need to do thing x,if no matter how ill or tired you are,you still have to do thing x,because thing x is vital...then it's OCD. And from what i know,ocd is not only very complex but it also a very broad range of thing x. From cleaning,to touching certain material,flicking switches etc. Just because the toy box being emptied on the floor bugs you,or you like your cleaning to be a certain standard it does not mean you are OCD

[iwouldgoouttonight]

This winds me up too. I have a friend with OCD and he suffers the most distressing intrusive thoughts, and it really affects his day to day life. People saying 'oh I'm a bit OCD ha ha' because they like to line up their cereal packets in size order have no idea what OCD actually is.

[harderandharder2breathe]

Yadnbu

I have (diagnosed) anxiety and do things like check the door is locked but having lived with someone who actually had severe OCD I'd never refer to myself as "a bit OCD"

OCD is a mental illness and saying ou have it implies it significantly affects your life. It's a Disorder, which implies it's not something you just laugh off, it's something that has a negative impact on your life.

[RainbowSeaMoss]

I used to have severe OCD (medications and threrapy for a few years in my teens) but overcame it. I still have a few lingering traces of it so I often say 'I'm a bit OCD about such and such' (eg being neurotic about overcooking meat, floors being clean, no shoes indoors, triple checking electrical items are switched off etc). It's a way of saying 'I'm a bit neurotic and anxious about certain things, I know these worries are irrational but please cut me some slack'

OCD isn't always severe and debilitating. Mild OCD can still have an impact on lives, be distressing and time-consuming and make others feel confused/uncomfortable. And many people are never diagnosed or treated, they just incorporate a few obsessive-compulsive behaviours/rituals into daily life.

Being 'a bit OCD' is like saying 'I have elements of OCD' not mocking someone with a severe form of the condition.

[Gottagetmoving]

There are degrees. My doctor told me I had mild OCD. Certainly not debilitating or severe but without some treatment it could develop into something worse.
I don't think people who say a little bit odd are being disrespectful.

[Gottagetmoving]

OCD....not odd.

[BoneyBackJefferson]

OCD and austism are both a spectrum.

[currentlyunavailable]

There are degrees, some people suffer more than others. Also, it's normal to exaggerate in casual conversations, "I will kill her", or "I am going to die", "I am depressed it's Monday". So what? Someone who is/has been suffering from depression can also use the sentence in a casual manner. (I cannot comment about actually ending somebody's life...)

I understand it's annoying for some, but pretty much everything we say can offend or annoy someone else, you can't spend your life tip toeing.