The Reality of OCD. One of my pet peeves when struggling… | by Emily | Aug, 2025
One of my pet peeves when struggling with OCD is people who will carelessly say ‘I’m so OCD, I love being tidy’. The common myth about OCD is that it requires the need for neatness. This may be true for some, but for me it is about keeping control of a situation, especially when I feel I have lost every other aspect of control in my life. Usually, this involves repetition of words in my head or rumination for hours at a time and my brain constantly tells itself that just one more compulsion will make everything perfect. One summer I convinced myself that if I didn’t do a piece of homework every day, something awful would happen, which was incredibly helpful for my grades but not so much my mental health. OCD can even involve episodes of disassociation where I am so focused on completing my compulsions I cannot register anything else going on around me.
High stress and tiredness will of course bring out the worst side of compulsions which I have learnt over time is because I am desperate to feel some power over my life, weirdly leading to my compulsions or ‘checks’ as I like to call them, as giving me comfort. However, my OCD can also get a lot worse in moments of extreme happiness where my brain convinces itself that to hold onto this moment I must repeat a certain word or touch a wall five times. To the ordinary individual, this may seem bizarre but to me, it seems to make perfect sense.
What many don’t realise is because this is an obsessive disorder, for me at least, this means I am constantly all or nothing. One small crush or disagreement can send me spiralling for days and sometimes may push me to a point of losing my temper because of the immense pressure to keep these compulsions inside for fear of judgement.
One of the biggest challenges faced in recent years is the new trend of manifestation. It’s main message is that your own thoughts create your reality. While this may seem fun to some, to many sufferers of OCD, it confirms their worst fears; that these compulsions can affect our lives as a whole. Manifestation seems to give more power to the voice inside your head that tells you that you must complete these compulsions to change or sustain your reality. However to sufferers out there, it is important to remember that the goal of manifestation is intentional goals for your life. OCD involves intrusive thoughts which cannot possibly be intentional for what you want out of life. It may seem simple to think of it this way and I still struggle with reminding myself of these facts.
Let me know if anyone else has their own experiences of having OCD within the trend of manifestation or any alternative views people may have.
