TA L K I NG A B O U T M E N TA L H E A LT H
TA L K I NG A B O U T M E N TA L H E A LT H
Obsessive and compulsive How much do we really know about OCD? BY SARAH TAYLOR
I recently received a lovely email from Mary* in relation to an article published in this series. Mary congratulated me on encouraging open and positive discussion about mental health in the workplace, but she queried whether the author of a recent article knows what it’s really like to experience the mental distress of Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (OCD). The article “Why it’s time to stop dealing with mental illness and start building mental strength” (issue 940, June 2020) referred to tennis player Rafael Nadal’s “…almost OCD approach to maintaining order in his environment prior to and during his match” as a technique to boost performance. Mary pointed out that referring to OCD lightly can downplay the mental distress that underlies compulsive behaviours and can discourage people from being open about it. She mentioned hearing people talk about “needing to be OCD” with washing their hands due to the spread of Covid-19. This sort of remark can thoughtlessly perpetuate a stereotype that dilutes the seriousness of OCD. Mary’s email got me thinking. How many times have I inadvertently used the term “OCD” without thinking about the distress that OCD causes? What do I really know about OCD? In this article, four fabulous members of Fixate, a Facebook-based group for New Zealanders with OCD and their supporters, share some of their experiences to help us try to understand OCD better. 44
Geoff OCD bombarded my mind with unwanted thoughts OCD is made up of two parts, obsessions and compulsions. The way I think of obsessions is that they are a broken warning alarm in the brain that won’t turn off. The obsessions warn you about something and the more you fight them, the louder that they continue to warn you. The compulsions are the short-term fixes you do to try to stop the warnings but you never really fix them. OCD has spent years warning me that I could purposely harm my wife, my children or myself. It has done this by bombarding me with intrusive images and thoughts that would fill the worst horror stories ever written. Believe me when I say that doing any of this is not only against all of my values but also not something I have any desire to do! I now understand that everyone has random disturbing thoughts that come into our minds without invitation. These are called intrusive thoughts. For most people they are usually quickly forgotten (think of them as junk mail). In OCD, an intrusive thought gets stuck in your mind, and you begin to obsess over whether it could be true and that you might do something that goes against your core beliefs. Feelings of anxiety, fear and disgust mean that you are compelled to take action, in the hope of gaining relief. But this is a major mistake because it actually reinforces the obsession, and you get drawn further in. One of the hardest parts about OCD is the feeling of
