Self Diagnosis - My American Life

http://www.thisamericanlife.org/radio-archives/episode/30/obsession

OCD and having to deal with compulsions is one of those things that people self diagnose a whole lot, and it's one of those things that people don't ever comment on.

No, you don't have OCD, you don't have anything even close to OCD. You just get annoyed at things that aren't organized.

That isn't OCD, that's just you not enjoying something that is out of order in a normal set of figures or a typical set of patterns. That isn't OCD, that is your normal brain seeing a normal pattern and not enjoying it when that pattern is broken. That is not OCD, that's called being normal.

I didn't really know what OCD was until I had some people around me have lesser, legitimate versions of OCD. OCD when it is actually OCD is something unlike anything you can even imagine. OCD is one of those things that ruins your life because you become obsessed with something completely irrational. You start to think that just because you tap on a door three times before you leave you won't have a bad day, so you tap on every single door, or door frame, that you see with no questions asked, and you have to do it a very specific way because if you don't you're going to have a bad day.

You want to bother a person with OCD? Sneeze on them. Force them to put their hands in mud. Turn off the lights. Take away their antibacterial soap. Whatever their compulsion is, stop them from doing it.

There is a difference from seeing something out of order and pointing to it and saying, "You know what? That's slightly annoying because I would prefer to see that all in order," and then seeing the exact same thing and going, "You know what? I'm going to spend the next two hours fixing that pattern because if I don't I won't be able to think about anything else in my life and I will either fix it now when I have the energy or I'll be back at two in the morning because I can't sleep and have to fix it."

Just like you should not sit down at home and self diagnose physical diseases - you know what? I like food and sugar so I think I have diabetes - you should not self diagnose mental diseases. You do not have OCD, you are not depressed, you do not have diabetes. You're just stupid and want something to complain about.

I don't have OCD, and I can't say that there's been anyone in my direct life that has had OCD, so I don't really have a story about it. I've had people in slight relationships to my life have full fledged OCD, but those minor relationships don't really count for anything because I just don't have enough exposure to give it the justice it deserves. There have been times when I've been irritated about something small, but being irritated does not count for having OCD.