#non-ocd people do NOT add onto this thank u

[silenthillmutual]

dyou have any tips on writing ocd?? i dont have it (im p sure but like adhd symptoms can be a little confusing sometimes) and i dont wanna like. get it horribly wrong

heya! thank you for asking!

i had to think about this a little bit and here are some things i came up with:

like with all neurodivergencies, most ocd rep sucks whether it’s canon or implied so don’t take your cues from things like glee (this probably goes without saying but i figured i’d state it anyway)

most ocd rep is things like clealiness or symmetry and those are obsessions that exist! but they’re far from the only obsessions that exist and it’s a little disheartening that ocd rep is just Ha Ha Isn’t It Funny We Upset This Guy By Farting. there are religious obsessions and sexual obsessions and violence-related obsessions and other sorts of obsessions, which leads me to:

ocd is really horrible and frightening to deal with and a lot of people don’t talk about it because their intrusive thoughts make them feel like they are inherently bad people and feel that talking about the intrusive thoughts is dangerous. 

like obsessions there are tons of different compulsions, not just hand-washing or shower-taking. hoarding can be compulsive, counting and re-counting can be compulsive, checking locks and stove tops can be compulsive, flicking light switches can be compulsive, apologizing can be compulsive...

some compulsions are tied to obsessions in ways that logically make sense like avoiding contamination by washing your hands, but a lot of them don’t make any sense. one i saw referenced a couple of times on ocd twitter was flicking a light switch a certain number of times to make violence-based obsessions stop.

i don’t think i mentioned this yet but the “obsessions” are obsessive thoughts, intrusive thoughts that you get and the “compulsions” are things you do to prevent them. it’s not obsession in the same way hyperfixation or special interest is an obsession (which is not to say that someone w ocd won’t hyperfixate, just that meaning here is different). so for example you can have obsessive intrusive thoughts that you are an inherently sinful person who is going to hell, and feel compelled to confess to every single sinful thing you ever think or say or do to anyone who’ll listen.

doing compulsions is really bad for you!! it reinforces the cycle.

while we’re on that topic actually: i keep trying to describe the difference between stimming and compulsions and the best way i can think to describe it as someone who does both is this -- stimming is done to self-soothe and because it’s fun! compulsions aren’t fun. you might feel anxious if you don’t stim because you’re overwhelmed, but you feel anxious if you don’t do compulsions because you’re afraid that means something bad will happen like someone will die or an accident will happen or something along those lines. compulsions only give you the illusion of feeling better. playing with your earrings because you like the jangling sound they make is stimming. spinning around in a circle exactly seven times because six and eight are “bad numbers” and you will feel bad or uneven if you don’t do it the exact right way the exact number of times is a compulsion.

do not and i mean do not ever ever ever give an ocd character an intrusive thought they act on! intrusive thoughts are not the same as impulsive thoughts! intrusive thoughts are not things you want to do (no matter how much your brain tries to convince you that secretly you do because w ocd your brain fucking hates you) and they are not things you will do, they are things that scare you!

like all other things ocd has a spectrum of severity and some people with ocd will be able to handle it with therapy and some will need medications. there’s nothing wrong with either of those.

exposure therapy is something you only do in a controlled environment with a therapist

ocd can be brought on by trauma

things can trigger your ocd

there’s also this thing some people w ocd get called hypermorality where you can get going on a rant about things that don’t fit your personal morals / ethics / etc and you feel like the anger is really self-righteous but after a while you crash and burn and you realize you’ve pushed a lot of people away

i recommend following @ocdkomaeda who is a therapist-in-training with more years diagnosed than me and also because i love them many. idk if he might have more things to look for but. yeah!!! gl