'I'm a bit OCD'

[Whosecoatisthatjacket]

As a precautionary measure I've altered my user name but would appreciate some advice in case I am being over sensitive.

A manager (not mine, but still my superior) has just sent out an email explaining something minor she has done by saying 'sorry but I have OCD.' She doesn't, she's just very organised and tidy.

I don't have OCD but did used to live next door to a chap with it. We saw so little of what he had to go through-only some rituals such as having to walk down his path repeatedly before leaving the house-but it still seemed crippling.

The manager did not mean to be disrespectful and the tone was clearly light hearted so am I being over sensitive to find it in poor taste? If I'm being reasonable, how do I raise it with her kindly without coming across as sanctimonious? Maybe I AM being sanctimonious??

Luckless I know a lot of people use the term inappropriately, and it annoys me when people have said it about me wrt to keeping a fairly clean/tidy home (the type of people who seem to have never heard of a hoover or keep piles of junk). But we don't know that's the case in the OP. Perhaps if the woman in question hadn't changed the thing, she'd have felt mentally wound up and unable to concentrate. I try not to use the term myself, but it is very tempting when someone sees you move something or whatever and you need a kind of shorthand for saying "Look, I just feel so much better when that thing is in place".

Ugh, saw someone on a thread the other day say ''I'm so OCD about checking this now''. It boils my piss.

My daughter will tell people she's "a bit" OCD. Her official diagnoses is "borderline OCD" - she teeters on either side of the line of having enough traits to be diagnosable, depending on her mental health at any given time. And she'll joke about it as well, because that's how we deal with our shit in our family.
There's no way, without knowing the other person involved fairly well, of knowing that they aren't using the phrase the same way.

As a person who has struggled with severe OCD since childhood and currently undergoing intense and possibly long term CBT. It really pees me off when I hear people joke about "being ocd" just because they are clean and organised. Ocd can be a living hell at times and goes WAY beyond keeping things clean and tidy. I am a self confessed checker, I over think things so much that I doubt myself and life and everyone around me I find it hard to trust people or sustain friendships, my thoughts are my own worst enemy and my fears for my kids safety is so severe that my kids have suffered as a result of my over protectiveness and complete unrealistic expectations.
Ocd sounds hilarious to those on the outside but it is a living nightmare on the inside. I'm sure she wouldn't be bragging about it so much if it was real but you should never judge only try to understand 😊 mine is severe i cry every day because I feel completely debilitated and out of control. But every one is different

She may very well have OCD.
You don't know so don't be quick to judge.
I would say I have OCD. It started when I was 8 and my GF died. I spent years obsessively counting things - if I didn't something dreadful would happen to the people I cared about. I worked very hard to not do this so much but it still happens when I am going through periods of high stress - like after my traumatic births and problems at work.
In between times I would say I have a bit of OCD - I will make sure books are all the right way round if I am standing next to a shelf for too long etc.
I hope it is not disrespectful of me to say I have a bit of OCD at the moment.

This post was put up on 18th January this year, so isn't current?!

It annoys me when people who don't have it use it as a joke explaining why they like to make their toast a certain way for example. However as an OCD sufferer, you would never know I have it unless I told you. I suffer from pure obsessional OCD. I worry I'm gay. I worry I'm ill. Im worried I don't love my DH. My compulsions aren't cleaning or walking up and down paths. My compulsions are going over the evidence over and over in my head until I'm sure it's a false statement, and then OCD gives me another intrusive thought that restarts the circle. So you never know, she may have OCD.

Yes, if it were anything else like referring to race or gender (in this current age of gender neutral hype) then it would be seen as extremely unacceptable. OCD is a crippling mental health disorder and can literally ruin lives.

I am beginning to think it would be best to rename OCD to something like Intrusive Thought Disorder or something along those lines.

As someone who’s suffered with ocd for 20 years that has never responded to treatment I find it quite upsetting when people joke about having it. It’s not just about being ott clean/tidy there are lots of other things that are draining and depressing to deal with. For all you know she could have it and dropping into conversation light heartedly to make it not sound as serious. I wouldn’t think too much into it tbh, if she has it she won’t want to go into the full details with you and if she doesn’t she’ll feel embarrassed at being question.

That's an ableist and totally inappropriate thing for the manager to write!