''I have OCD" "No you don't"

I was officially diagnosed as OCD when I was eleven years old. I had never heard of it before I sat down in a psychiatrist’s office but I was amazed at how many of the symptoms of the disorder fit my personality. OCD is multifaceted so two people can have OCD and exhibit vastly different symptoms. 

After the diagnosis, I didn’t tell anybody. I spent one sentence on it in my journal  “I was diagnosed with OCD and GAD and I have to see a psychiatrist. I don’t want to talk about it” Don’t get me wrong, I was glad we finally learned what the problem was. But it was hard to accept it. My mom called off my birthday party because she didn’t think I could handle throwing a party at the time. 

When school started back up in the fall, I was starting sixth grade. I didn’t tell anyone about my OCD or the medication and how it frequently made me feel sick. I guess I was ashamed. Everyone else seemed to have such small problems but maybe they were hiding secrets of their own. 

Finally, I was on the bus right day, sitting next to my best friend Maureen. She mentioned something about a friend being “so OCD”. I didn’t even know Maureen knew what OCD was. I decided to come clean.

“I have OCD” I confessed. Maureen looked at me as though I had just told her the sun revolves around the Earth. 

“No you don’t” I was taken aback by this statement. I did have OCD. I even had documentation from a doctor to prove it. “You are the messiest person I know” Maureen continued. On that point, she was probably right. A brief glance at my locker would tell you that. But I had no idea what this had to do with OCD. I hadn’t researched it all, instead I pretended it didn’t exist. So I had no idea that a certain percent of people with OCD were very organized.

I told my mom about it when I got home and she explained it was one of the misconceptions of OCD that everyone who had it had to be neat. That was in 2009. It’s 2024 and we are still battling these misconceptions today.