Unless you have somehow managed to avoid the tantalizing call of the Internet for the majority of your life, you’ve probably been exposed to someone in the depths of Facebook or Tumblr who has said something along the following lines.
“Oh my god, she’s just so bipolar!”
“I just organized my candles by color; I’m, like, OCD.”
I can’t stand this.
Can’t you take a joke? Yes, I can take a joke. But this stuff doesn’t feel like joking anymore. And every single one of those jokes is dehumanizing. All those little instances add up until I’m stranded in a desert of every “Obsessive Compulsive Disorder” joke I’ve ever tried to push aside.
Mental health is poorly understood in our country, and our misconceptions are reinforced by the entertainment industry utilizing the issue as a plot device — take ‘Silver Linings Playbook.”
This kind of behavior isn’t just limited to whiny teenage girls on Tumblr. Jesse Eisenberg appeared on ‘The Tonight Show’ with Jay Leno and discussed some of his severe pre public appearance quirks. It sounds like some form of OCD, but at least it seems manageable.
When Jennifer Lawrence joined them later in the show, she turned to Eisenberg and said “by the way, you are the most interesting person.” Apparently while watching him from her dressing room she decided, “I want weird quirks.” Eisenberg, on the other hand, wasn’t so thrilled. In fact, he looked visibly uncomfortable.
And this is the thing; Eisenberg must have had to build up a lot confidence to discuss such a subject. Anxiety disorders are all about trying to cope with, check on or control uncertainty. Lawrence making a joke of it, or making such a life-altering thing look desirable hurts those who are suffering for a mental illness.
These jokes, comments, and misunderstood desires belittle the how serious any mental illness can be. Kids who only see “OCD” as a desirable thing may find it difficult to reach out for help.
According to the Huffington Post, one in four adults experiences a mental health disorder each year, and less than one third of them receive treatment. Even among people who have been diagnosed with serious mental illness, less than 40 percent receive treatment. When people hear jokes that minimize the seriousness of a disease, they’re less likely to want to ask for help.
I’ve always been told that being able to ask for help is the first part of an often lengthy, ongoing process to recovery. When the majority of the American public can’t take that leap, recovery is impossible.
The next time you’re about to let it slip that you’re “so OCD”, remember that OCD, or any mental illness, isn’t something that activates every once a while. It’s a constant, life-changing disease that effects your life in a permenant way.
By: Paige Crenshaw