J is for Joking About OCD
My college math professor, looking at the dry erase markers stacked in precise lines by color: “Looks like one of my students is a little OCD.”
The Internet, suggesting a quiz that will tell you whether or not you have OCD, based on whether it bothers you when stacks and piles have one piece out of order. (Here’s a hint: That bothers virtually everyone.)
Instagram, when you scroll through the tag #OCD (go on, try it) and see perfectly aesthetic pictures of color-coded notebooks, M&Ms sorted by color, and tidy rooms.
This has about as much to do with OCD as coughing a few times means you have pneumonia. They are not the same…and I’m pretty tired of people thinking they are.
You know this terrible, disabling mental illness that has made me feel like a completely garbage human being? It’s being used on shirts as a punchline. People are making jokes about it. OCD took away so much of my high school and college years…years when you’re supposed to be having a great time, according to popular culture, anyway. And not only is it not recognized, but when it IS recognized, it’s used as a joke.
Let me put this in perspective: Imagine that you’re running to catch a bus, and you end up out of breath. “Wow, I’m so lung cancer,” you wheeze to a friend. Or you have low blood sugar and end up a little shaky because you forgot to eat lunch. “I’m all diabetes today!” you complain.
In what world would that be okay? It doesn’t make sense. And it’s downright disrespectful.
Also, grammar nitpick: OCD isn’t an adjective. It’s a noun. You have OCD, you aren’t “so OCD.”
So, please, world. Let’s stop turning mental illness into a punchline.