The people I treat for OCD hate it when someone says, “I’m so OCD!,” usually as a way of explaining pickiness or excessive neatness. I do, too. Not only does the comment minimize the severe suffering a person with actual OCD experiences; it also perpetuates a number of prevalent misconceptions about the disorder.

1. OCD isn’t a personality quirk. It’s a  neuropsychiatric illness involving persistant, intrusive mental images or thoughts (obsessions) that create extreme emotional distress–typically anxiety, but sometimes disgust. Compulsions develop as a way of alleviating the intolerable feelings.
2. OCD isn’t perfectionism. Perfectionism is one thinking style commonly, but not always, seen with OCD. Other cognitive patterns, such as an excessive sense of responsibility, a tendency to overestimate danger, and an intolerance of uncertainty also frequently accompany OCD.
3. Not everyone with OCD is a neat freak. Neatness may be characteristic of people with OCD who have a compulsion to create order and symmetry to feel “just right.” Or the need to clean and wash may be a response to contamination obsessions. But other forms of OCD involve primarily mental images and rituals often invisible to the casual observer.
4. OCD is easy to spot. Washing and checking compulsions may be obvious to family and friends. But many other obsessions and compulsions occur strictly in the sufferer’s mind, making them hard to detect even for mental health professionals. Given the shameful nature of these mental intrusions, such as thoughts of committing a violent act, people afflicted with this type of OCD may suffer in silence for years–seventeen, on average–before obtaining the proper diagnosis and treatment.
5. OCD is hard to treat. Many traditional mental health practitioners hold this view. In fact, with the correct, evidence-based treatments (Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy and medication, if needed), people with OCD can feel relief within a few months.

These myths do a disservice to those in the grips of OCD. Let’s set the record straight.