Ocd

Brian Y said:

"OCD" has become a bit of popular culture, and everybody on the internet wants to be seen to have it - because it's "cool".

From my experience, people who have OCD don't go posting about it on the internet - and I apologise in advance if I offend anyone, but you can probably quite safely assume that anyone who says they have/boasts about having OCD on a tech forum (including most in this thread) probably don't (even if they think they do).

There are also various "grades" of OCD - walking up the stairs multiple times, or locking/unlocking your phone in a pattern, isn't what the diagnosis is about. By its very nature - an obsession (distressing thought) leads to a knowingly irrational compulsion which severely debilitates someone. I.e turning your phone on and off to check it's switched off isn't irrational/unrelated. Neither is putting things in a straight line on the table to ensure that you don't trip over them.

As I said, I mean absolutely no offence by this - but to put SMDBill's example of counting stairs/only wanting to go up an even number of stairs. That wouldn't be considered to be a symptom of OCD since it's more a "brain training" thing - something that you've trained yourself to subconsciously do. Now, say that every time you walked up a flight of stairs, you got an uncontrollable vivid thought of you stabbing every single one of your family members (obsession), and no matter how hard you try to think about something else, you can't (uncontrollable) - the only way you can stop the thought is by walking up an even number of stairs (irrelevant compulsive behaviour). If you walk up an odd number of stairs, your thoughts will come true and your family will be dead (irrational fear), and because of this, you cannot walk up an odd number of stairs under any circumstances. That would be a symptom of obsessive compulsive disorder. The fact that you "know it's meaningless" proves it's not.

Again, I apologise if I offend anyone - that's not what's meant by this post as I hope people will appreciate. But it does get tiresome hearing people throw around the term not just in "OH MY GOD IM OCD MY PHONE HAS A SCRATCH" but how it's seen to be "cool" and there's a "club". People who have cancer wouldn't go around throwing it into every post on a tech forum because it's not "cool" - and neither will anybody who genuinely suffers with OCD in it's true sense (which, whilst manageable, has been pretty much proven to be chronic). I hope my example in the previous paragraph shows this.

OCD is thrown around very lightly, but it's often deeper and darker than the majority of people, including most self diagnosees, think.

Click to expand...

Kissaragi said:

I had OCD when i was about 15 and have recovered from it. Its an awful condition but its certainly possible to beat or at least manage, the more help you can get the better.

Its pretty crazy for anyone to be offended by people using the word OCD in the context its used for here. Its a much more polite term to describe some of the people who are practically using scanning electron microscopes to look for imperfections on their new iPhones than they possibly deserve!

Click to expand...

Brian Y said:

"OCD" has become a bit of popular culture, and everybody on the internet wants to be seen to have it - because it's "cool".

From my experience, people who have OCD don't go posting about it on the internet - and I apologise in advance if I offend anyone, but you can probably quite safely assume that anyone who says they have/boasts about having OCD on a tech forum (including most in this thread) probably don't (even if they think they do).

There are also various "grades" of OCD - walking up the stairs multiple times, or locking/unlocking your phone in a pattern, isn't what the diagnosis is about. By its very nature - an obsession (distressing thought) leads to a knowingly irrational compulsion which severely debilitates someone. I.e turning your phone on and off to check it's switched off isn't irrational/unrelated. Neither is putting things in a straight line on the table to ensure that you don't trip over them.

As I said, I mean absolutely no offence by this - but to put SMDBill's example of counting stairs/only wanting to go up an even number of stairs. That wouldn't be considered to be a symptom of OCD since it's more a "brain training" thing - something that you've trained yourself to subconsciously do. Now, say that every time you walked up a flight of stairs, you got an uncontrollable vivid thought of you stabbing every single one of your family members (obsession), and no matter how hard you try to think about something else, you can't (uncontrollable) - the only way you can stop the thought is by walking up an even number of stairs (irrelevant compulsive behaviour). If you walk up an odd number of stairs, your thoughts will come true and your family will be dead (irrational fear), and because of this, you cannot walk up an odd number of stairs under any circumstances. That would be a symptom of obsessive compulsive disorder. The fact that you "know it's meaningless" proves it's not.

Again, I apologise if I offend anyone - that's not what's meant by this post as I hope people will appreciate. But it does get tiresome hearing people throw around the term not just in "OH MY GOD IM OCD MY PHONE HAS A SCRATCH" but how it's seen to be "cool" and there's a "club". People who have cancer wouldn't go around throwing it into every post on a tech forum because it's not "cool" - and neither will anybody who genuinely suffers with OCD in it's true sense (which, whilst manageable, has been pretty much proven to be chronic). I hope my example in the previous paragraph shows this.

OCD is thrown around very lightly, but it's often deeper and darker than the majority of people, including most self diagnosees, think.

Click to expand...

chrono1081 said:

I've wondered this too. I used to have OCD (real OCD) and I would constantly switch light switches on and off, or make sure when I changed TV channels it always ended in pressing the "up" button, and I always had to shut doors and cabinets "correctly".

It was like I lived in a world where if I did one of these things wrong something terrible would happen. I overcame it mentally after a few years but still catch myself being "OCD" every now and then.

I kind of laugh when someone is like "I'm OCD because I need my sock drawer organized" oh if only they knew what real OCD was like.

Click to expand...

Brian Y said:

"OCD" has become a bit of popular culture, and everybody on the internet wants to be seen to have it - because it's "cool".

From my experience, people who have OCD don't go posting about it on the internet - and I apologise in advance if I offend anyone, but you can probably quite safely assume that anyone who says they have/boasts about having OCD on a tech forum (including most in this thread) probably don't (even if they think they do).

There are also various "grades" of OCD - walking up the stairs multiple times, or locking/unlocking your phone in a pattern, isn't what the diagnosis is about. By its very nature - an obsession (distressing thought) leads to a knowingly irrational compulsion which severely debilitates someone. I.e turning your phone on and off to check it's switched off isn't irrational/unrelated. Neither is putting things in a straight line on the table to ensure that you don't trip over them.

As I said, I mean absolutely no offence by this - but to put SMDBill's example of counting stairs/only wanting to go up an even number of stairs. That wouldn't be considered to be a symptom of OCD since it's more a "brain training" thing - something that you've trained yourself to subconsciously do. Now, say that every time you walked up a flight of stairs, you got an uncontrollable vivid thought of you stabbing every single one of your family members (obsession), and no matter how hard you try to think about something else, you can't (uncontrollable) - the only way you can stop the thought is by walking up an even number of stairs (irrelevant compulsive behaviour). If you walk up an odd number of stairs, your thoughts will come true and your family will be dead (irrational fear), and because of this, you cannot walk up an odd number of stairs under any circumstances. That would be a symptom of obsessive compulsive disorder. The fact that you "know it's meaningless" proves it's not.

Again, I apologise if I offend anyone - that's not what's meant by this post as I hope people will appreciate. But it does get tiresome hearing people throw around the term not just in "OH MY GOD IM OCD MY PHONE HAS A SCRATCH" but how it's seen to be "cool" and there's a "club". People who have cancer wouldn't go around throwing it into every post on a tech forum because it's not "cool" - and neither will anybody who genuinely suffers with OCD in it's true sense (which, whilst manageable, has been pretty much proven to be chronic). I hope my example in the previous paragraph shows this.

OCD is thrown around very lightly, but it's often deeper and darker than the majority of people, including most self diagnosees, think.

Click to expand...

chown33 said:

You said "odd" an even number of times, and you said "even" an even number, unless you count "unevenness" which was once, and thus odd, but it's embedded "even" could be construed as making an odd number of "even"s. I personally find the complementary parity pleasing, rather than unsettling.

Nope, I'm not a counter at all. Not at all.

Click to expand...