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| What you see on TV isn't always what you get. |
Fascinating. He saw my OCD as almost a kind of superpower that could be used for good... harnessed and directed at my will. HA! As if.
The truth is that OCD can't help me become a better student. On the contrary, there have even been times that it has made it impossible to do the work that I needed to do. Rather than a superpower that I can use to direct my focus and perfect my projects, OCD chooses the focus. It brings on anxiety that can slow or even halt progress. For example, if I get into an OCD reading funk, I may feel the compulsion to reread sentences over and over and over. Soon they lose their meaning.
There are a lot of misunderstandings about mental health out there. Just think about how many times people equate schizophrenia with multiple personality disorder, or how little people know about the varying symptoms of depression. Unfortunately, pop culture and the media generally take a very surface level exploration of the topic. They give people something easy to understand and digest.
Since the overall media isn't educating the public, it becomes even more important that individuals who are able spread awareness when they can. When my student asked his question, as someone who is in a relatively stable place and felt safe to share, I seized it as a teachable moment.
Many people get understandably angry and frustrated by the lack of knowledge that's out there. However, instead of getting annoyed by this student's question, I just tried to explain the reality of the situation. If the person is sincere in trying to understand, what good does it do to get mad? It isn't his fault the only vision of OCD he had been exposed to was an incorrect caricature.
We can triumph by setting the record straight, even if we have to spread awareness one person at a time.
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