‘I’m so OCD’: Misunderstood psychological disorders

DYLAN HEMBROUGH reporter

Trigger warning: This article contains discussion of mental illness and suicidal ideation.

Mental illness has become much less taboo in recent years, but it is still often very misunderstood. These misconceptions can lead to stigmatization and sometimes even harassment.

Obsessive Compulsive Disorder

Among these misunderstood disorders are obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD), attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), schizophrenia and borderline personality disorder (BPD). The Diagnostic and Statistical Manual, or DSM, is used as a benchmark for defining disorders and mental illnesses.

Obsessive-compulsive disorder, according to the DSM-5, is characterized by “dysfunctional beliefs” that can include “an inflated sense of responsibility and tendency to overestimate threat.” Many equate OCD with perfectionism and a need for absolute control but do not think any further beyond this.

OCD exists in a unique spot in the mind of society, both shunned as something that only controlling or “Type-A” people have, and diluted as a simple preference for being neat and tidy. Nystrom & Associates outpatient therapist Hailie Kallembach breaks down a few common myths about OCD online, addressing the idea that “everyone has a little OCD” and its incorrect perception as a personality trait.

I personally have struggled with OCD for much of my life, and I can attest to the stigmatization and misunderstanding of the disorder. The “O” in OCD stands for “obsessive,” and usually goes unseen by the general public. People with OCD fight repulsive thoughts and may feel like their own mind has turned against them.

To cope with the mental images these intrusive thoughts often produce, people with

OCD often perform “compulsions,” represented by the “C” in the acronym. Compulsions are the more visible side of the disorder: excessive hand-washing and performing certain actions a certain number of times are among the more common and noticeable compulsions, but many “rituals,” as they are sometimes called, are also entirely mental.

What classifies OCD as an anxiety disorder is the often debilitating anxiety and sense of panic that comes along with a person’s need to perform a compulsion. Obsessive thoughts which center around death or sex may involve compulsions in which the person reprimands themselves for having such thoughts, even if the person is completely aware that they are unwanted, repulsive and involuntary.

OCD is just one of many psychological disorders for which affected people have to deal with misunderstandings, misconceptions, stigmatization and sometimes even harassment. It is always important to remember to treat people with respect and empathy, especially when they are suffering.

For information on other misunderstood disorders, check out the online version of this article at alestlelive.com and the resources below.

OUR ONLINE VERSION INCLUDES MORE INFORMATION ON THE FOLLOWING DISORDERS:

Attention Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder

Schizophrenia

Borderline Personality Disorder VISIT THE FOLLOWING WEBSITES FOR MORE RESOURCES:

International OCD Foundation

Children and Adults with Attention

Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder

The schizophrenia webpage at the National Institute of Mental Health

National Education Alliance for Borderline Personality Disorder

TO LEARN MORE ABOUT OTHER DISORDERS CHECK OUT THE DSM-5 IN THE DSM LIBRARY AT PSYCHIATRY ONLINE.

Sexism in the medical field is as old as health itself

CHLOE WOLFE photographer

Throughout history, women have been ignored by medical professionals when they complained of any ailment. The diagnosis of hysteria was just another way women’s problems were dismissed.

Hysteria was first documented in Ancient Egypt and Greece. It stood the test of time and was a common diagnosis for women until the 1980s. Even though it was proven incorrect, the diagnosis still affects people with uteruses today. Hysteria is a diagnosis centered around uteruses. Until about 40 years ago, medical professionals believed that uteruses affected their owners mentally, causing them to act “crazy”.

Kathleen Vongsathorn, an associate professor in the history department who focuses on women’s health, describes hysteria as many different diagnoses all in one.

“Some arguments have been made for hysteria, often being diagnosed in a case of what may have been endometriosis,” Vongsathorn said. “Another typical reason for the diagnosis of hysteria in women was a notion that they were over-educated and their minds were overstimulated and that had caused mental health issues because their minds weren’t prepared for it. There’s also a whole range of mental illnesses that could fall under the label of hysteria.”

Although the idea had existed before, hysteria became a common diagnosis in the 1880s.

Some of the “solutions” to hysteria included marriage and orgasms, which were known as uterine massages and performed by doctors with special tools, according to the National Library of Medicine. Vibrators are a direct result of this treatment.

Vongsathorn described another common diagnosis from the time known as neurasthenia. Neurasthenia had similar symptoms to hysteria, but had a nearly equal diagnosis between men and women.

Although they had similar symptoms, the diagnosis for hysteria was 97 percent women. Hysteria was often diagnosed as a way to ignore ailments that women actually faced. Instead of taking the time to figure out what was actually wrong, doctors would just say they were going crazy. This still has repercussions today.

Vongsathorn said that women are more likely to die of heart attacks because their symptoms were less studied compared to men’s, leading doctors to ignore the symptoms and sign them off as something else.

“We have this long history of women’s reporting, especially of pain, being delegitimized by basically saying, ‘Well, they’re just hysterical or over emotional, or they just don’t handle pain very well,’” Vongsathorn said. “And this has been in our society and in our medicine for so long.”

In a survey, The Alestle asked participants that identify as a woman or those who were socialized as women, if they had ever been told by a doctor that their physical health issues were ‘all in their head.’

Out of 538 people, 49.88 percent (263) said yes, 18.96 percent (102) said no and 32.16 percent (173) said the question did not apply to them.

“Every woman can tell stories of when they go to a doctor with symptoms, and the doctor suggests that it might be anxiety or depression or something like that,” Vongsathorn said, “Stories where you could go for something totally unrelated, like asthma, which is well documented medically over the course of years. And then the doctor might be like, ‘Oh, well, the medicine isn’t working. So maybe that means that you have this anxiety disorder, which means that you don’t breathe well.’”

Hysteria is rooted in the establishment’s prejudice that women are crazy simply because they have a different reproductive system than men. Due to this difference, women are looked at differently and can be not as well cared for by the medical field. Vongsathorn thinks this is a part of the sexism women face throughout their lives.

“I guess socially that this is one among a number of ways in which women’s experiences are delegitimized and women’s lives are made more difficult.” Vongsathorn said. “It’s just one facet of sexism effectively.”