To be or not to be…

It’s that time of year again. Autumn leaves cover the ground, we’ve finally got the Trick Or Treat facepaint out of our eyebrows and the last firework has (hopefully, finally, please God) been spent. Which means it must be time for the latest series of I’m A Celebrity Get Me Out Of Here to hit our screens.

Before the first kangaroo’s anus had even been swallowed, the viewers were shown interviews of this year’s fresh contestant intake, revealing how terrified they are of spiders, snakes and cheeky Geordie double acts. This year’s grande dame of the entertainment industry is renowned choreographer Arlene Phillips, who, in her interview, when talking about how she likes everything in her life to be ‘organised, clean, neat and tidy’, referred to being ‘completely OCD about everything.’

Hmm. Okay. At this point, hairs on the backs of the necks of OCD sufferers across the country started to bristle. Arlene, you cannot ‘be’ OCD. OCD is not an adjective. It is, in fact, a debilitating and serious mental health disorder that can destroy, and in some cases, take lives. The acronym OCD stands for obsessive compulsive disorder. You cannot ‘be’ a disorder. You can ‘have’ a disorder, but you cannot ‘be’ one.

But what if Arlene actually has a clinical diagnosis of OCD? She may have. It’s possible. One to two per cent of the population have one. But on the whole, people who are genuine OCD sufferers don’t tend to frame their disorder using that kind of language. For clarity, generally, people who ‘have’ OCD don’t say that they ‘are’ OCD. If Arlene does have a diagnosis, I hope she has found a way to happily live with, control or combat her condition and that she’s getting all the help or treatment she needs. Also, if she does have a diagnosis, I would respectfully suggest to her that she changes her language choice when talking about her condition.

But why? What’s wrong with saying ‘I’m so OCD’ or ‘I’m a bit OCD’? What difference does that make? The difference is that every time someone uses one of those terms, it trivialises what is fundamentally a serious psychological condition. Really? I thought OCD was just about bleaching things, lining up your pencils and alphabetising your CD collection. No. OCD is about intrusive, unwanted, obsessive thoughts. These thoughts are often irrational yet to the sufferer they’re very, very real and often all-consuming. In most cases, the only way to alleviate the intrusive thoughts is to carry out a compulsion. The whole process can lead to a vicious cycle of damaging and exhausting thought processes and actions.

OCD has many guises and comes in many forms, all of them a bit shit. This disorder of obsessions and compulsions can ruin lives. It’s far from simply wanting your cushions arranged nicely on the sofa or wondering if you’ve left the oven on. It can be life-limiting and hugely destructive and debilitating for sufferers as well as their loved ones. Incidents of suicide in those with OCD are 10 times that of those without. Most OCD sufferers are too busy just trying to get through the day to sit and arrange their bookshelves in height order. Therapy can help, as can medication, but the stigma and misunderstanding that surrounds OCD simply adds to the problem.

No other mental health condition is trivialised like OCD. There would, quite rightly, be public outcry if someone said ‘I’m so Alzheimer’s’ when what they actually meant was they’re just forgetful. No one trivialises depression or PTSD. We’ve got past the point of saying ‘Get over it’ or ‘Cheer up love’ to depression or PTSD sufferers, because we recognise these conditions as serious illnesses and we give those who have them the respect, kindness and understanding they deserve. Yet OCD is still treated as a joke. Language surrounding the acronym needs to change if OCD is to be considered with the same respect, kindness and understanding in the public consciousness as those other conditions.

When huge media corporations like ITV continually trivialise OCD with language like that used by Arlene Phillips, among many others, not only do the public continue to think of OCD as a comical affectation, it also stops genuine sufferers from seeking the medical help they need, or discussing their condition, because they don’t think they’ll be taken seriously.

Despite launching their ‘Britain Get Talking’ mental health campaign in 2019, of which I’m A Celeb’s Ant and Dec were the poster boys, ITV are serial offenders and several times have allowed misrepresentations of OCD to be left in their programmes and on social media feeds, when they could easily be edited out. I’ve approached many of the organisations and individuals who misrepresent OCD before and none of them has had the decency to respond, the humility to apologise or the good sense to engage in open conversation. And until they do, nothing will change. So I will continue to fight the good fight and call these people out.

Interestingly, whenever I do this on social media, there’s always an element of ignorant abuse that follows. People telling me that I’m ‘easily offended’, I should ‘get a life’ or I should at least make sure I complain to OfCom ‘an even amount of times’. Bafta-worthy retorts. Nine times out of ten the aggressive ignorance comes from a certain demographic (those who know, know). Some people I’m prepared to engage with, to educate and inform, but some clearly show no signs of having the mental capacity, open-mindedness or compassion to be able to understand. So I don’t bother with them. I’m happy to let them think they’ve got one over on me, that they’re victorious, that they’re hilariously funny, that they understand more about obsessive compulsive disorder than someone who’s actually got obsessive compulsive disorder. While they’re posting memes that unwittingly solidify their narrowminded ignorance to everyone else, I’ll be directing my energies towards raising awareness of the misrepresentation of OCD.

So if you’ve ever said ‘I’m a bit OCD’ because you don’t like to leave the washing up til the next morning, or if you’ve laughingly claimed that you’re ‘Sooooooo OCD’ because you clean out your car every Saturday afternoon or hang your clothes in your wardrobe according to colour, please don’t. Next time, think about the genuine OCD sufferer who’s on medication because they can’t bear their constant intrusive thoughts. Think about the person who actually does have that disorder, who’s contemplating taking their own life tonight because their condition makes living unbearable. And never again use that acronym when you could simply say ‘I’m tidy’, ‘I’m particular’ or’ I’m clean’ instead.

Now we’ve got that out of the way, anyone fancy a fermented sheep’s bollock? Anyone? No..?