OCD awareness week means so much to me. After having this illness for over 31 years, I can not explain how wonderful it is for it to be recognized and talked about. Growing up, I thought I was crazy. Now, I know I am crazy but I also know that I am not alone. There are thousands of us. Thousands of crazy, beautiful, magnificent, wonderful people just like me and I am not sure that there is anything more powerful than learning you are not alone. You do not suffer alone. You do not worry alone. That there are people who may not have the exact same rituals, compulsions, or obsessions that you do but yet they still know exactly how you feel. It is amazing and comforting and even, dare I say calming? It helps to know that I am a part of such a terrific group of individuals.
Thirty years ago, twenty years ago, hell even ten years ago, OCD was a nameless mental illness only known to those of us that had been diagnosed with it. There was no fanfare or special weeks set out for it. No t-shirts or banners to hang. It wasn't uncommon to have explain your diagnoses over and over again to the same person until they understood that yes, it was a real thing and that yes, you, in fact, suffered from it. Now days, people use the term OCD like it is the most fashionable thing in the world. They use it to describe everything from being neat and tidy to quirky and organized. This is probably the most insulting and irritating thing an actual OCD sufferer can hear but at the same time if people are willing to incorrectly label themselves as OCD than I am going to take their faux pas and turn it into a discussion with them of just why they are not sooo OCD and I am....I believe everything can be used as a teaching tool and we now have the voice to speak, teach, and educate just what OCD is about and how it affects us and the ones that we love.
Anyway, Happy OCD Awareness week my wonderful peeps! Hold your head high and be proud of not just what we have accomplished but who we are as people. Because honestly, we might be a bit different than the rest of the world but we are makes this world diverse and unique and beautiful. We rock, so let's rock it like it is 2014! Yeah!
Neurotic Nelly
You are so right--just a few years ago, even, you didn't hear a lot about OCD. I'm glad that it's being talked about and studied more now than when I was first diagnosed. I hope it helps the young people coming up who don't know what in the world is wrong with them.
ReplyDeleteThanks Tina Fariss Barbour! I hope so too. If we would have had more talk about OCD especially less talked about OCD symptoms, I am sure we would have been less terrified or worried. It would have been nice to have known I was not a freak of nature or some maniac. I had no idea and after I finally got an actual diagnoses ten years after my first symptoms, I was so relieved that what was wrong with me had a name. Also back then doctors told my mother it sounded like I had OCD but they didn't treat it in young kids. I was four so they actually told her it would go away...well, we see how well that worked out. Lol. Now there is so much more information out there and I have to believe that it will help our fellow OCD sufferers know that they are not alone!
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