Crass OCD Comments

[Ashley]

What I would like to do is create a log of journalists/columnists making crass OCD references. When time allows we will then contact them and express our frustration at their failure to recognise OCD for the serious illness that it is.

As an example, this is one I found today.

Doughnut peaches – the new craze

Guardian - By Zoe Williams

Offending comment:

Adults with OCD love them because the flesh doesn't adhere to the pip in the same way as it does in a regular peach, so you don't finish the eating experience covered in juice, having to lick yourself like a dog.

[Guest alison]

interesting thread.

i read that article and thought it was just a totally unnecessary reference to ocd?

[Guest Paul2]

I think this is a great thread, iam fed up of the term "ocd" being trivialised, someone started a thread on a music forum i follow about ocd and it was such a trivial thing basically pertaining to fickle preferences for how an induvidual likes things and nothing to do with ocd. if the journalists that use the term "ocd" so loosely in their columns actually had any insight into the illness then they wouldnt be so trivial about it.

[Guest Charlotte]

I don't want to take away from the point of the thread, but I found this quote in the Guardian too -

Sports stars can be remarkably willing to let fans and opponents inside their heads, increasingly given to describing themselves as "a bit OCD" – a designation of which we should probably steer clear unless we make it stand for "on-court drills". Likewise "a bit autistic" and "a bit multiply sclerotic".

- Marina Hyde

[Guest Charlotte]

You will have read in The Times this week that doctors are developing new ways to spot the early signs of Obsessive Compulsive Disorder so that they can treat patients before they morph into fully fledged lightbulb-licking towel-tidiers.

Well, put like that it’s all completely understandable. I suppose we’ll get some extreme OCD sufferer, who wet-wipes the soles of his shoes 444 times a day and believes that his wife will die if he doesn’t see three women wearing red anoraks before noon, saying that what Sir Gerald has isn’t OCD, it’s called “being a bit unimaginative with your breakfast”. But I say “rubbish”. OCD is on the rise and we know this because everyone, absolutely everyone, now claims to have it. Haven’t you noticed?

Carol Midgley, the Times

[Guest red]

I cant believe these ignorant people are allowed to say things like this, totally uneducated morons, if they made comments of a simular

nature to someone who had a physical disibility it would be all over the news. Totally disgusting, if only they could step into our shoes for a day to see what it really feels like. :angry:

[Guest Aarandorf]

so that they can treat patients before they morph into fully fledged lightbulb-licking towel-tidiers.

This comment really took me aback! How dare they say things like this? The media in general has helped making this sterotyping easier. They try and promote the idea, "If you can't see it, hear it, smell it, feel it or touch it, it can't be a problem! So lets go ahead and make fun of people we don't even know.

Seriously, I propose they make a comment about Disabled people, people with Cancer or People with easily visible diseases. Something tells me that after that was released, they would get completely smattered with letters ordering them to make a formal apology. Because we aren't defended in the same way, its just thrown about so they have someone to make fun of, to make themselves feel better...

I wish people would take other peoples problems a lot more seriously.

All the best,

Aarandorf

[Ashley]

How OCD are you? - Facebook Application.

Sample of the text the test offers:

Plain and simple...you have full on OCD issues. You are a clean freak, your house and work place gets dusted at least 3 times a week, and if you see something that just isn't "right" you have to fix it. Even if it's not yours. You count a lot or like to repeat the same thing repeat the same thing a certain amount of times. People bother you...alot. However there is hope, you aren't completely messed up. You can go to work and live a fairly productive life and quietly keep the counting to yourself.

Reported to Facebook and the application developer with this message.

OCD is a serious debilitating illness that can be disabling and does destroy lives, just this week I had a lady break down with me because her sister had taken her own life because of OCD. This application is belittling the illness, simply add's to an incorrect stereo type of the illness and is offensive. Would Facebook allow this if it ridiculed people with Cancer or HIV? I doubt it. If Facebook do not take action then we hold you equally responsible as the developer.

Ashley Fulwood

www.ocduk.org

UK National Charity

[whitebeam]

Good for you Ash on your reply. If only a few people read it and take it on board, it will be a few who are better educated as to how debilitating OCD is.

Thank goodness there are people like yourself who are willing and able to tell people what it is really like.

[Guest red]

I'm sure every member of this website would think that what you wrote was absolutely spot on. Shame on the uneducated ignorant people of Facebook

Nice one Ashley :clapping:

Red

[Guest -Nizz-]

If you search 'OCD' on Facebook you get a load of **** about it ¬_¬

The worse I've seen is a Twilight fan club: OCD - Obsessive Cullen Disorder.

(Edward Cullen is the main character in the film Twilight and the books series it's based on.)

[Guest Charlotte]

Shooting in close-up from under their chins made them look like sweaty all-in wrestlers. If a camera angle can be classified as actionable, this is surely it. Elsewhere the lens showed exhausting signs of OCD, flicking and darting as if hunting the ball on Centre Court. The harder you try to make music on the small screen "interesting", the more tedious it gets. - Fiona Maddocks, the Observer

[Biccy]

article in yesterdays guardian magazine saying her cleaning obsession is similar to addiction to alchol or drugs. hummmmmmm

[Guest Karley505]

These articles are so frustrating, even my friends say thing sometimes without actually realising how insulting they are being even my doctor said to me 'you only have ocd' like it is nothing!

I can kind of understand peoples ignorance to some degree because they havent been properly educated about it, but i have a lot of people say to me i have ocd too because i have to make sure my shelf is always neat and tidy or whatever, a lot of ppl just really dont understand it and i have to bite my tongue, but then again i didnt fully understand it either b4 i realised i had it.

This is agreat thread by the way :o) xxx

[Guest Fallen Angel]

This article infuriated me. I have written the following letter to the Guardian in response:

The extent of Shazia Mirza`s `addiction` resulted in `two minutes cleaning the studio`

Alcoholism results in devastation. Waking up in stranger`s rooms in unfamiliar towns, plastered in ones own blood, vomit, urine and bodily waste; suffering from migraines and memory loss. Hospital visits and trauma. Coming round in dark alleys; in the middle of roads. Blackouts. Abdominal cramps. Neurological damage. Unable to stand in the shower without flinching in pain due to the most recently obtained injuries.

...`When I go to peoples houses, I feel the need to wash their plates...` Ms. Mirza stated.

My heart bleeds.

[Guest Wombat142]

Yay! I hope they print it. That article annoyed me too. Not that it's about OCD exactly, but it's the same kind of daftness. And I usually like her column.

The Observer Magazine and Guardian Weekend both frequently print these gems, it always gets on my nerves. If I see any more like that I'll post them.

Wombat142

[Guest hannahmaniac]

QUOTE

You will have read in The Times this week that doctors are developing new ways to spot the early signs of Obsessive Compulsive Disorder so that they can treat patients before they morph into fully fledged lightbulb-licking towel-tidiers.

QUOTE

Well, put like that it’s all completely understandable. I suppose we’ll get some extreme OCD sufferer, who wet-wipes the soles of his shoes 444 times a day and believes that his wife will die if he doesn’t see three women wearing red anoraks before noon, saying that what Sir Gerald has isn’t OCD, it’s called “being a bit unimaginative with your breakfast”. But I say “rubbish”. OCD is on the rise and we know this because everyone, absolutely everyone, now claims to have it. Haven’t you noticed?

Carol Midgley, the Times

Did anyone complain about this one? I have seriously never read anything quite as ridiculous. I can normally take ignorant comments about OCD with a pinch of salt, but this is something else. For someone who is meant to be intelligent, she is extremely stupid and idiotic.

Han

[Guest blu;-)]

Some of the few people I have confided in have thought it's trendy, David beckham did not do ocd any favours.

I wish it was trendy.

There may be some advantage to it.

[Guest -Nizz-]

OCD is on the rise and we know this because everyone, absolutely everyone, now claims to have it. Haven’t you noticed?

That quotation is really awful :'( where did it come from? =/

[Guest Jennipurr]

Meh, this actually upset me, I feel personally attacked whenever someone says stuff like this, equally when I hear someone is 'depressed' because they 'have no money to go out' or 'buy new shoes'. I think this country is definietely Over-PC with a lot of things, but this has extremeley offended me.

[carolj]

Piers Morgan talking to Cliff Richard last night "You have OCD tendancies dont you". Cliff "Whats OCD?" (That was worrying!)

"Well you like the toilet paper to hang with the long bit close to the wall".

I ask you!!!!

[Guest Wombat142]

OCD is on the rise and we know this because everyone, absolutely everyone, now claims to have it. Haven’t you noticed?

I suppose that could be meant as a sarcastic comment about the people who say things like "I'm so OCD, I have to have all my videos in order". I don't know though, because I haven't read the article. Certainly such people deserve all the sarcastic comments that are coming to them!

Wombat142

[Guest Furby]

I remember a while ago there was an interview with Alesha Dixon (for those who don't know, she's a British R'n'B/pop singer whose music is ****, but I always thought of her as being quite a cool person) who was talking about how she has OCD, and compares herself to Monica from Friends since she had "Obsessive cleaning disorder" because she liked to tidy and clean the kitchen when she gets home. Not so much a crass comment, more just ignorant and naive.

EDIT:

I just found this video. Now I've not watched the whole thing, but I'm barely a minute in and I'm already a little angered by Ruby Wax's comments. Well done BBC, very tasteful.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/headroom/wellbeing/gu...tml?rubysroom07

Edited September 28, 2009 by Furby

[Guest Soho]

Wow, these are all disgusting. :dry: Makes me sad to read them.

Edited September 29, 2009 by Soho

[Guest Greensleeves]

How annoying!!!!!

This thread has made me so annoyed! I hate the way naive celebrities/people in the media think that its just some trendy disorder where people ''tidy a bit too much''

To me OCD is something that ive beeen affected by since before I could remember and even though ive gotten pretty good (IMO) at hiding my compulsions I still think thoughts that totally disgust me. As you all know, these thoughts involve things that I could never in a million years be capable of and most people, if they only knew would be disgusted and treat me as a social outcast for the thought crossing my mind.

AND another thing! As mentioned further up this thread, so called friends just think its a trendy thing. I remember opening up to my closest friends one night at the pub, we'd all been drinking and words come out easier for it. After me pouring out my lifes darkest secrets, I was met with ''ooh yeah ive got a bit of the cos my rooms really tidy'' or ''oh yeah, thats what ive got cos arrange my teddies''

Sorry for the rant guys!! Just never been able to vent off about OCD before!