Obsessive Compulsive Cleaners - Season Two

[Guest OCD-UK RSS]

Following last night's accurate portrayal about the realities of suffering with OCD shown by the ITV1 programme âOCD Wardâ, OCD-UK remain extremely disappointed that despite our lengthy discussions with Channel 4 earlier this year, they have chosen to commission a second season of Obsessive-Compulsive Cleaners, which is due to be broadcast this evening.

Tonight's broadcast is the first of a new eight part series, and is described by Channel 4:

This brand new series follows people who, by their own admission, cannot stop cleaning and carefully matches them with someone whose home is in dire need of a spring clean. Together these people with such contrasting compulsions will explore how their different behaviour affects their lives.

Whether itâs scrubbing an oven with a toothbrush for six hours, sleeping on the floor for fear of creasing pristine bed sheets or trimming the edges of the lawn with a pair of scissors, the cleaners will go to almost any length to make sure their homes are immaculate.

The series also features a new strand, The Obsessive Compulsive Cleaners Guide toâ¦in which a team of obsessive cleaners, led by OCD diagnosed 27-year-old bleach fan Hayley, reveal their fears and phobias about everyday places and objects. Whether itâs a trip to the supermarket, a train journey, using a public toilet or visiting a café, the cleaners carry out a range of tasks, swabbing surfaces and objects along the way, pushing their boundaries and uncovering the bacteria hotspots we all come into contact with on a daily basis.

Whilst we have only seen trailers at this time and are yet to see the programme, we remain concerned by the previews and the text from the press releases that the programme will trivialise the devastation that OCD can cause, and appears to be edited in a way that mocks the behaviours of those depicted with OCD and we believe that this type of programming remains unjustifiable TV.

The programme title and emphasis of the programme still appears to add to the wholly inaccurate and false stereotype that OCD is purely about people that clean. In fact, the direct opposite is true, the NICE guidelines for OCD suggest one study showed that only 26.5% of people with OCD actually have cleaning compulsions. In fact, people with OCD that do have contamination/cleaning issues find it incredibly disabling and actually get no pleasure what-so-ever from their compulsive rituals, which seems contrary to the message that the Channel 4 programme depicts.

At a meeting with Channel 4 after the end of the first season, we met with the channel's disability advisor, along with representatives from Time to Change and Mind. During the meeting, the impression was given that the focus of the programmes would shift away from community cleaning, and there would be to more of a focus on looking at other aspects of OCD and treatment through involvement of a health professional with knowledge of OCD.

If our fears are realised, we will continue to engage Channel 4 to highlight our concerns and urge them to reconsider further series. We feel that this programme not only trivialises the severity of those that suffer with contamination obsessive fears, but also adds further to the misconception that OCD is primarily about cleaning compulsions. This misrepresentation about what OCD is all about can only lead to increased stigma and ridicule for those that suffer.




Tags:

Obsessive Compulsive Cleaners

[Ashley]

I believe Time to Change are releasing their statement/comment during the next hour also.

[Guest Lexy81]

I watched some and had to Change channel as felt they were mocking OCD!

It really annoyed me!

[Guest Chez]

The 2 women are to me taking the mic, anxiety I can't see any !!!!! What a load of **** !!!!!

[Ashley]

The 'germ' exercises is dangerously reinforcing false 'views' for those with contamination OCD. I believe it to be far worse than the first season, and more so it is dangerous for those with OCD to actually watch, in that I feat it might make some even more fearful.

[gingerbreadgirl]

I can't bring myself to watch it, but what germ exercises are they doing?

[Ashley]

I can't bring myself to watch it, but what germ exercises are they doing?

Using germ readers/machines to measure germs on toilet seats in trains, door handles etc. Very damaging. I urge all with OCD not to watch it, for your own sakes.

[gingerbreadgirl]

oh my goodness, what are they going to achieve with that?! what a horrible, damaging programme.

[Guest Pugdoglover]

This is awful- why use some people's illness to benefit someone else's problem??? Expl0itation much.. Sorry if this offends anyone.

Pug

[daisy]

Hi Ashley,

I have only watched a bit of it and yes you are right,my OCD consists mainly of contamination,and am very frightened to go out and to be honest the germ exercises have made me more fearful,and will find it even harder now!

[Ashley]

This is awful- why use some people's illness to benefit someone else's problem??? Expl0itation much.. Sorry if this offends anyone.

Pug

Totally agree. I thought the series could not get worse than the first series, I was wrong. They talked more about OCD this time, but they were getting the focus so wrong, giving the exact opposite message that a therapist would give.

[Guest Pugdoglover]

Exactly, I think they are using people with OCD as guinea pigs. Awful, i'm glad to see this illness is a source of entertainment for some people......Disgusting.

[Northern Star]

I'm refusing even to watch it this time round - thought the last series was enough of a disgrace. Not giving C4 my +1 for their viewing figures!

That aside, Ashley is there any mileage in some kind of consistent complaints from a lot of users on here or do you not think that would be much use at the moment? Happy to help with that if it's something you think we should be doing.

[Northern Star]

Aargh, channel-hopping via channel 47 and just caught an advert for it. Definitely think not watching was the right decision!

[Guest LauraMac]

I found the germ testing actually reinforced my ocd. My OCD revolves around contamination so it has just put it in my head that actually I should be alcohol gelling/washing my hands as much as I am to protect myself. It's frustrating, they've just made a mental block for me.

[Guest legend]

feel very damaged in the sense of all the efforts ive put in along with ocduk comes undone in a matter of minutes

the concerning part is that they had the chance to work with people who understood ocd, but appear to have declined that, and those that have "ocd" on the programme

have been detrimented with the total wrong approach

shocking

[Guest Pugdoglover]

Had the people actually been diagnosed with OCD on the programe?...

[daisy]

They should never have done that germ testing thing,i'm the same as you Laura,going to be even harder now! Wish i had never seen it!

[Northern Star]

Oh dearie me - this is why I get so angry at programmes like these.

PLEASE try to discount what you've seen - I know that's so much easier said than done, but from what I can tell they have done this for viewing figures alone. Otherwise they would have jumped at the opportunity to gain advice and guidance from people who understand OCD. Try to focus on the good advice offered by OCD Ward and other experts. The problem we have is not contamination - it's OCD.

[svr]

Oh man, some of us who can view it need to mass-dislike or mass- negatively comment on this show or something. =\

[Guest honey]

I wasn't going to say anything about this, but I actually met the people who were recruiting for this programme, in my city (Norwich). It was about six weeks ago. They were standing in the street, with a big sign asking if you have OCD! Interested, I approached them, only to see that they were literally recruiting passers by who had OCD symptoms for the programme. I was stunned. I took a deep breath and spoke with the two very polite young people who were doing the recruiting. I didn't say I was a sufferer, because I didn't want them to discount what I was saying. I approached it from the point of view of someone who works with young people who have mental health issues - this is part of my job. Luckily I was wearing my work lanyard so looked official! I kept super calm, but asked them politely how they felt about exposing people with OCD to ridicule for the purposes of entertainment. They did actually look and sound quite ashamed and a bit embarrassed. They mumbled something about how they got a psychologist to sign off on everyone who appears, and when I asked them who this psychologist was, they said 'umph well er you know...'.

I did raise the issue also of what this charity has said about the programme and they said to me 'Oh yeah, that charity OCD UK were well furious' or something of that ilk.

I kept my cool throughout and did distinctly get the feeling that the young man was aware that there are two sides to the story. I asked him politely to pass on to his colleagues (he was not a media temp, he told me proudly that he was the company's recruiter) that many people with OCD were not happy about the effects of his programme. He said he 'oh er yeah um' would!!

There, got that off my chest, didn't watch the programme as I can't afford to break my TV by throwing things at it. Sorry to hear it's worse than the last one, which I did watch.

honey

[Northern Star]

Well done, honey . At least you might have made them think twice if nothing else.

I'm still refusing to watch this series - there's enough stigma about without these idiots adding to it, and all I can say is what I said during the first series - "it harks back to the days of Victorian asylums when the public would pay to watch the 'loonies'". I thought we'd moved on some way from that mentality but programmes like this show me that some people still just aren't getting it.

[Guest honey]

Completely right about the 'watching the loonies' bit! That's exactly what these programmes are; you can tell when they put the jaunty jolly music on. It's telling you that 'yep, these people are NUTS'. Now I may BE nuts but I don't care to have this exposed to the ridicule of millions.....

Edited October 30, 2013 by honey

[Guest Tricia]

Well done, Honey, good for you and for all of us. Thank you.

[Guest honey]

Thanks Tricia...it felt good. Thankyou for doing the ITV programme.