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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

to think that many people dont take OCD seriously?

67 replies

UpYourViva · 30/01/2010 19:13

Ive encounterd on many occassions people flippantly stating they have OCD because they like to keep a tidy house etc.

I have struggled with OCD for as long as i can remember, it's only in recent years that it's stopped affecting my eveyday life.

Many of my friends claim to have it and when ive tried to talk about my experience of it they dont seem to take me serously.

AIBU?

OP posts:
KimiLivesInStarbucks · 30/01/2010 19:17

No you are not being unreasonable at all

cornsilk · 30/01/2010 19:23

I agree. Parents do the same thing with ADHD.

Kaloki · 30/01/2010 19:25

YANBU.

Lots of people make flippant remarks about serious things. Depression is the one that winds me up.

My best friend has OCD though she's much much better nowadays!

Original poster
UpYourViva · 30/01/2010 19:29

Yes, same with depression and ADHD definately. I just think they should all be taken more seriously, i told a few people at Uni the other day about my having OCD as were were already on the subject and they practicaly ingnored it and claimed they too had it because they cleaned or tidied too much

OP posts:
bibbitybobbityhat · 30/01/2010 19:30

I think it must be very annoying indeed for people who genuinely suffer from illnesses such as ocd, depression, phobias and allergies to hear others giving their own mild traits these very serious labels.

People do the same with flu (bad cold) and norovirus (stomach bug).

However, I don't REALLY bedgrudge people not understanding what it is like to genuinely suffer from one of these illnesses. You wouldn't wish it on anyone. It is just ignorance and you can choose to be annoyed by it or just let it go.

Have had to do it many times on Mumsnet with people saying "I mean what is emetophobia. No one likes being sick."

Bumperlicious · 30/01/2010 19:32

YANBU, as mental health issues have become more widely known they have also become more open to 'abuse'. We have become a society who likes labels and explanations for all of our behaviours as a way of devolving responsibility.

You'll have to just ignore them or keep trying to explain things and hope they get it.

TruthSweet · 30/01/2010 19:33

I find even my CPN/outreach worker/Joe Bloggs has said 'Oh that's not OCD, every one does that' in response to me talking about having intrusive thoughts about the DDs dying/getting injured/snatched/etc. Yup everyone spends hours a day ruminating on their thoughts of their DCs being maimed in a car crash meaning that it will happen or you want it to happen...

Or people say 'I haven't seen you wash your hands a lot before'. OCDis not just handwashing and light switch flicking

Original poster
UpYourViva · 30/01/2010 19:39

Completely empathise with you TS i also suffer from intruseive thoughts and even doctors can disreguard them.

Bibbity i do agree, it is mainly down to ignorance and i suppose you just have to let it go.

Also Bumper i completely agree with the label thing, i suppose we all want an explanation for the things we do which arent neccessarily 'normal'

OP posts:
Coldhands · 30/01/2010 19:49

I have never actually been to the doctors as I don't think it is severe but I am pretty sure I do have OCD. It is with regards to stuff being straight and no dirt on hands etc but I never really thought about the intrusive thoughts. I just thought that parents think like I do but now I'm questioning it a bit. Maybe its not 'normal' to constantly have thoughts that something bad is going to happen to your dcS.

I know what you mean though OP, I suffer from M.E. and I hate it when people say "oh yeah I get really tired too" etc. Its soooo not the same thing. I even had my nans hairdresser asking if M.E. was like depression, as I think she is depressed and was trying to say she knows what it is like (I have also had depression several times, they are not the same).

I also had a therapist who said "I get like that" to every single M.E. symptom that I had. I really wanted to turn around and ask him if his doctor had diagnosed him yet as he obviously must be suffering of he felt the way I do sometimes.

KimiLivesInStarbucks · 30/01/2010 19:55

Hell I have had OCD for years, at one point I would go as far as to say I was crippled by it.

Now although I still have it, I admit to being flippent about it, such as saying to friends who comment about it, "well if you're going to have a mental illness this is a good one as I have an immaculate house"

BiologicalPowder · 30/01/2010 19:57

My take is that most mental illness is generally not taken seriously - and considered fair game for silly comments and jibes...

Think about the Bunny Suicide Series - I mean, can you imagine a similar snide take on cancer for example?

ElenorRigby · 30/01/2010 20:02

YANBU at all...
In the past I had severe Social Anxiety Disorder. I went to a group called Triumph Over Phobia (TOP UK)
There I learnt from fellow members about OCD and other conditions.
People imo do need more awareness.

Trickle · 30/01/2010 20:19

It's not just MH - my mum has chronic daily headache with migrane thrown in. Cue 'Oh I get headache/migrane'

Yeah - but constantly with no respite and needing to go to bed three days out of a week at least?

Had one woman who told me she had incurable migrane too - had to take a pill everyday so she didn't get one

THERE IS NO SODDING PILL MY MUM CAN TAKE!!!!!

Sorry for hijacking but get irate about it now and again, it's been 16 years now.

Same with depression - saw on here 'turn off the telly and go for a walk'. What if you're thoughts are so intrusive you can't concentrate on the telly and you daren't go out becasue you might have a pannic attack in public.

Grrrr.

It's anything people can't see.

Original poster
UpYourViva · 30/01/2010 20:20

HATE the Bunny Suicide Series! i dont get it!

Coldhands- thats awful re your ME, i have a fried who suffers from it and she has struggled with others iopinions of it, it must be hard, esp when the docs dont take it serously.

ER- people do defo need to be made aware of such 'illnesses', too many people know very little about deppression and OCD etc.

Kimi i like your style, i must admit that having an obsession with cleanliness does help to keep the house in order

OP posts:
bibbitybobbityhat · 30/01/2010 20:25

Is the thing with OCD a feeling that bad things will happen if you don't do things a certain way? Is that at the root of it?

Original poster
UpYourViva · 30/01/2010 20:28

It can be bibity, when i was aloyt younger i would constantly tough things in my room or count to 5 in my head because i was scared what would happen if i stopped. Even now, i have to check ive locked the doors before going to bed at least 2-3 times, it's hard to fathum why

OP posts:
Original poster
UpYourViva · 30/01/2010 20:29

Oops- many typos

OP posts:
TheBreastmilksOnMe · 30/01/2010 20:33

It's just the same with any 'illness'- mental, physical or otherwise. People like to dramatise their lives so you will frequently hear people saying 'I've got flu' when it's a cold, 'I'm depressed' when their feeling low, 'I want to die' after a night out, 'I suffer with migraines' when it's a headache etc etc. It's not just confined to OCD. On the whole, people who have the 'real thing' tend not to be so vocal about it.

Original poster
UpYourViva · 30/01/2010 20:34

In fact, on reflection id say that yes (in my case anyway) it is.

When i think about not checking things constantly or not putting my bloody sofa cushions in order it does worry me (subconsiously i think) what could or might happen if i didnt do it.

It's the intrusive thoughts that get me though, i cant explain that one

OP posts:
TheBreastmilksOnMe · 30/01/2010 20:35

A very good book for those of you who do suffer with OCD or any other anxieties to do with control is the book by Susan Jeffers 'Embracing Uncertainty'.

Original poster
UpYourViva · 30/01/2010 20:38

Thanks TheBreastmilksOnMe, ill take a look at that

OP posts:
GibbonInARibbon · 30/01/2010 20:39

I have to say I joke about mine (now under control thank God)

I know it's hell when it has you in it's grip but it's either laugh or cry for me.

But no, YANBU.

NichyNoo · 30/01/2010 21:25

upyourviva I agree with you. I suffered from OCD from the age of about 8 onwards. It ruled my life until I learnt to control it at about age 14-15.

I mean it really ruled my life - and that was in the days when it wasn't talked about and no-one had heard of it. I remember watching an episode of Casualty in the early 1990s that featured a patient with OCD and it was an eye opener. That was the first I heard that it was an illness. My mum contacted social services to try and help me and I saw a child psychiatrist but to no avail. I finally learnt to control it through sheer willpower.

None of my friends in RL know (either those who were friends at the time or current friends) and it really annoys me when they flippantly say things about themselves like 'oooh I have such a clean house I must have OCD'. They really have no idea how crippling an illness it can be and how it can rule and ruin your life.

I am currently pregnant and scared that having a DC will bring back the OCD that I have so far managed to control. I would never tell my friends in RL about my worried though as I know they will be flippant and not understand the seriousness of the subject.

StealthPolarBear · 30/01/2010 21:29

I have started a thread on this before
It really winds me up when people say things like "I have to straighten that picture, it'll be my OCD coming out"
Don't do that with

GibbonInARibbon · 30/01/2010 21:34

NN try not to worry too much. I had the same fears when pregnant with DD and I think if you are aware of it you can nip those urges in the bud.

I will admit to having hag like hands at the moment as I am washing them way to much (pregnant again ) but I noticed and have reined it in.

I had it really bad and since conquering it (as much as you can to live a normal life) it has never beaten me again

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