Misconceptions Research Project: The Misconception of OCD
In spring 2024, students in Dr. Emily Stark’s Social Psychology course completed a research project where they identified a misconception related to psychology, conducted both background research and an empirical project measuring belief in that misconception, and summarized their findings in a short blog post paper. The goal was to build student research skills as well as showcase the importance of thinking critically about information encountered in the media or in popular culture. This post shares one of the final blog papers created for this project. For more information on this project, just use the contact page to contact Dr. Stark.
By Ryan Compton
“I’m so OCD.” “That’s triggering my OCD.” “I have super OCD.” You may have heard these phrases or some versions of them uttered in your personal life or on social media in that past several years. In order to understand the misconception about obsessive-compulsive disorder, more commonly known as OCD, we have to delve into the origins and exemplify the common and mistaken understanding of OCD. These images are probably uncomfortable, slightly uncomfortable, or even downright disturbing to some. You can find these kinds of images by searching “OCD images” on Google or any search engine and you will be met with countless photos showing broken patterns, things out of place, asymmetrical, or misaligned. Sometimes you may see things like these occasionally in your day-to-day life and feel a strong urge to “fix” or change something to fit a pattern or match its visual expectation. But is this behavior obsessive-compulsive? What really is OCD and why is there a misconception behind how common it may seem?
One article from 2022 focuses on informing public perception about obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD), listing the histories, main symptoms, genetic and psychological factors, as well as impacts, treatments, and future outlook for people with the disorder (Li et al., 2022). The history around OCD in the paper mentions its religious history wherein people were considered to be possessed while attempting to fulfill compulsions since the 14th century, as well as Freud’s view on the disorder and his recommendation of psychoanalysis, which has been replaced since better treatment methods were implemented. The genetic and psychological factors state that research seems to indicate the cause of OCD is mostly genetic, though environmental factors can also come into play. The impacts talked about consider variation in behaviors such as relatively little things that cause little or no life distractions to larger overt behaviors that may affect a person’s studies, job, and social life. The last section before the conclusion focuses on misconceptions among the populace such as people denying their abnormal symptoms and possible mental illness due to the stigmas, some people not realizing symptoms at all, people thinking mental illness is contagious, a reason to celebrate, or as a joke. These insights feed the notion that OCD and mental illness in general are not taken seriously enough by many people.
Another paper, from 2015, directly studies the effects of frequent use and misconception of OCD (Pavelko & Myrick, 2015). The researchers used an online experiment to examine effects of using exaggerated language about OCD by online users and about people with OCD on the whole with various factors in mind. The article looks at language used in the online realm about whether or not trivializing and generalizing OCD changes opinion about those people and on OCD as a whole. As far as the misconception goes, the study seems to suggest that people tend to exaggerate their behavior to seek some sort of reverence, as they were more well-liked and users were more receptive to them especially when they spoke more clinically compared to trivially. The study concluded that though people trivializing OCD did not drastically change perception of OCD, it did correlate with some more negative opinions about those users.
The last study I found most relevant used a statewide random telephone survey in New York to learn the demographics and general knowledge of OCD among participants (Stewart et al., 2018). Participants were asked what obsessive-compulsive means, if they had heard of it, and if someone with the disorder is different from someone who is just obsessive-compulsive and how.
This study speaks to not necessarily any misinformation about the disorder, but does provide a good starting point for gauging the knowledge of the public about OCD in terms of perception. Various demographics such as minority and less privileged groups tended to have gaps in knowledge on the disorder and obsessive-compulsive behavior in general and that higher education and income were also significant predictors of knowledge on OCD, which could be used to better target and educate people about the disorder to fill in missing knowledge to better inform the public and reduce social stigma for OCD and mental illness as a whole.
And indeed, according to a survey containing questions geared towards OCD understanding, compiled and distributed by my Introduction to Social Psychology class, the data disappointingly seems to reflect the exaggerated and flippant use of the disorder. Of the 87 participants in the survey that responded to my OCD-oriented statements with their strong or somewhat agreement or disagreement, “somewhat agree” was the most common response for the statement that OCD is common, 40% of the overall responses, followed by somewhat disagree (24%), neutral (18%), strongly agree (14%), and strongly disagree (3%).
The next statement I proposed to respondents was that they have heard someone they know claim to have OCD but with no official diagnosis as far as the respondent knew, yet assumed or believed it to be true. Again, “somewhat agree” was the most common answer with 37%, then followed by strongly agree (25%), neutral (22%), somewhat disagree (9%), and strongly disagree (6%).
The last statement I proposed for respondents was that the respondent believes they themselves may have OCD, but no official diagnosis, and here I believe may be the most surprising results I found—“strongly disagree” was the most common answer with 44%, yet the next most common answer was somewhat agree with 25%, or 22 out of the 87 respondents, that indicated they themselves believe they may have OCD with no diagnosis. Neutral then followed with 17%, followed by somewhat disagree (8%) and strongly agree (6%).
So, it seems the responses skewed a bit towards agreeing that OCD is really somewhat common. But what do experts say about the prevalence of OCD in the United States? According to one paper that compiled epidemiology from a few different sources, the lifetime prevalence of OCD is only 1.6% to 2.3%, or about 2 in 100 (Brock, 2023).
So, what exactly is OCD? The Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders 5th Edition (DSM-5) characterizes obsessive-compulsive and related disorders as obsessive in the sense that there exists stressful or anxiety-inducing stimuli and are compulsive such that a person feels driven to perform an action that is related but unreasonable or unhelpful. The most important distinction between what one may think of when encountering something called OCD and actual OCD , is whether or not any type of action taken to avoid or relieve some type of anxiety with a particular thing is one that is repetitive and severe enough in terms of dysfunction and disruption of normal life, such that it rises to the level of a diagnosable disorder and is not simply a quirk of our funky pattern-seeking brains. Be sure to remind people you know that carelessly use OCD as a talking point are only furthering a misconception!
References
Brock, H. (2023, May 29). Obsessive-compulsive disorder. StatPearls [Internet]. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK553162/
Li, Y., Shi, H., & Xue, Y. (2022). Basic cognition and misunderstanding of obsessive-compulsive disorder. Proceedings of the 2022 6th International Seminar on Education, Management and Social Sciences (ISEMSS 2022), 1556–1562. https://doi.org/10.2991/978-2-494069-31-2_183
Pavelko, R. L., & Myrick, J. G. (2015). That’s so OCD: The effects of disease trivialization via social media on user perceptions and Impression Formation. Computers in Human Behavior, 49, 251–258. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.chb.2015.02.061
Stewart, E., Grunthal, B., Collins, L., & Coles, M. (2018). Public recognition and perceptions of obsessive compulsive disorder. Community Mental Health Journal, 55(1), 74–82. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10597-018-0323-z
Werner, L. (2021). “I’m so OCD!”: A Qualitative Study Examining Disclosure of Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder. UWL Journal of Undergraduate Research, XXIV.