Obsessive Compulsive Disorder – Misconceptions About OCD

 What Do You Think OCD Is?

Most people have heard the term ‘OCD’, but the real question is, has it been used in the right context? Many associate ‘OCD’ with traits like being neat, clean, and tidy. While these can come as a part of OCD, they’re not what defines it. OCD stands for obsessive-compulsive disorder – this is shocking for some who use the term on a regular basis, as they might not realize it is an actual anxiety disorder. 

What Is Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder Really?

Obsessive compulsive disorder is an anxiety disorder characterized by distressing intrusive thoughts and the compulsions or rituals that someone may perform to reduce their anxiety around these thoughts. Intrusive thoughts can be relating to the cleanliness or tidiness of a room, but there are many kinds of intrusive thoughts that can come with obsessive-compulsive disorder, not just these. Sometimes obsessive-compulsive disorder affects people in a way that has nothing to do with this. For example, intrusive thoughts can be worrying you might accidentally harm or kill somebody, unpleasant sexual thoughts, anything that you might not necessarily WANT to think, but that just comes into your head. Intrusive thoughts are something that everyone experiences, but not everyone can just dismiss them. To some, they feel extreme guilt or worry around the intrusive thought and they have to check things, count to a certain number, wash their hands a certain number of times in order to rid themselves of the thought. This is only temporary and often the dependence on the compulsions becomes more severe over time.

What Are Compulsions?

Compulsions can be all sorts of things. One that we would be familiar with from TV shows and films would be obsessive cleaning, and checking things are in place. Other compulsions include ‘neutralizing bad thoughts’ by thinking good things to counteract the bad thought, ruminating, hand-washing and many more. One that a lot of people wouldn’t realize is a compulsion is reassurance seeking. This can come through in different ways – checking what people think of something you have said or done, or disguised in a normal conversation which is often guided by the person who needs the reassurance until they find the reassurance they need. Some may say the same things to lots of different people in the form of ‘oversharing’ to get the reassurance they need over and over again. So obsessive-compulsive disorder is not necessarily what the media portrays it as. 

Mental Health Education – What Are We Contributing?

 About Us

At Mental Health TV, we provide mental health education to the general public, as well as medical students, or professionals looking for CPD. We believe mental health education is extremely important for those dealing with mental health problems, but also a key to becoming more aware of when there really is a problem. Mental Health TV was founded by Dr Andrew Macaulay, MD, MSc., MRCPsych. He has been a practising Psychiatrist for over 30 years and is passionate about mental health education.

Our Programmes

We make lots of different programmes, ranging from Insights on Depression, to The Medicated Misadventures of Sarah Tonin. The Medicated Misadventures of Sarah Tonin is an animated short series that we are working on to show how serotonin, adrenaline, noradrenaline and dopamine work together to affect our moods. The aim of this programme is to provide mental health education to a broad audience and simply explain the way these neurotransmitters can work. This will help with awareness on how SSRI anti-depressants work as well.

The Medicated Misadventures Of Sarah Tonin

What we are aiming to achieve with this programme is mental health education that is eye-catching and interesting. Many sources of mental health education, while good, are in the familiar format of talking heads. We decided to change serotonin into a character called Sarah and demonstrate simply what her tasks were when it came to regulating mood. The catecholamines (noradrenaline, adrenaline, and dopamine), we turned into cats named Nora, Addy and Dopey. They all live in the brain of a 20-something party animal. Nora is fitness obsessed and keeps the body ready to move, Addy is always on the watch for things that make Mac anxious, and Dopey encourages Mac to do the things that he enjoys – though this isn’t always helpful. Sarah sends messages to the nerve cells every day, but if she slacks, Mac’s mood can dip as things go out of balance. The second episode will demonstrate the function of SSRI anti-depressants. This is important, as there are a lot of misconceptions about anti-depressants and sometimes this prevents people from seeking treatment for their mental health problems.

Matters Of The Mind

Matters of the Mind is a YouTube series that we regularly update. It’s bite-size mental health education, covering a variety of topics, with our most recent one being caffeine and mental health. We’ve also covered schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, obsessive compulsive disorder, trichotillomania and more. These are short and snappy, in the hope they can appeal to a broader audience.