Obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) does not always flip light switches, count posts or line things up in rows. Sometimes OCD is becoming actively uncomfortable and antsy if someone else is sitting in the spot where you expected to sit. This discomfort may cause you to lash out in anger. OCD can be carrying all of your books and school papers in your arms because that’s the only way you can be sure you have everything. OCD can be not throwing away any school papers and carrying them all in an ever-growing stack because it would be terrible to not be prepared should the teacher ask students to pull out an old assignment from three months ago.
OCD can be wrapping every thought with a cloud of tangential and descriptive information which obscures the thing you want to tell other people. Only you can’t skip any of the information because it’s all connected. And if anyone tries to interrupt the thing you’re saying, you get angry, because you weren’t finished, and the thing you were saying is important and must be completed. OCD can be correcting the pronunciations of the people around you because if a word is said wrong, your brain cannot let go of that word until it is spoken correctly. One of these things is a quirk; all of these things together is a disorder that affects pretty much every hour of every day and every relationship in your life. OCD can look like disobedient defiance, rudeness and disrespect.
Anxiety does not always worry about things. Sometimes anxiety is a heart that races and palpitates even though there is nothing going on and the person feels calm. Anxiety can be feeling antsy and agitated, like post-adrenaline shakes, even though nothing happened. Anxiety can be imagining a dozen possible futures and making plans to be prepared for all of them. Anxiety can be hyper-organization that other people praise, and which is actually useful, except that it never allows rest, vacation or breaks. Anxiety can be needing to leave an event because there are too many people moving around and talking, making you unable to track everything. And you have to track everything, because if something goes wrong, you must be ready for it. Anxiety can be skipping work opportunities because they require face-to-face interaction. Anxiety can be checking up on other people’s work until they get annoyed with you, but you can’t not check because you have to be prepared if they didn’t do their job. Anxiety can look like a nagging and controlling personality.
Depression does not always stay at home lying in bed in a pit of despair. It is not always dramatic or suicidal. Depression can be doing all the tasks that are required of you but enjoying none of them. Depression can be feeling like things will never be better than they are now. Depression can be binge-watching television shows on Netflix, because then you don’t have to listen to your own thoughts. Depression can be playing endless games of solitaire to fill the spaces between required activities. Depression can be deciding to stay home rather than go out with friends because being social sounds too exhausting. Depression can be having friends drift away because you’re not the person you used to be and you don’t have the emotional energy needed to maintain the friendships.
Depression can be crying at seemingly random times over things which wouldn’t normally cause tears, like a happy song playing, or the store being out of the cereal you like. Depression can be a messy house because you only have so much energy to do things and laundry didn’t make the list this week. Depression can be not bothering to brush your hair or change clothes because it is too much work. Depression can look like a person who is standoffish, slovenly and unfriendly.
So if you have to deal with a person and they are awkward, rude, nagging, standoffish or negligent, pause a moment before you condemn them. It may be that they do have the character flaw you perceive in them. Or it may be that the person is fighting a daily battle you can’t see, and they need your compassion instead of your anger.
A version of this post originally appeared on One Cobble at a Time.
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Sandra Tayler is a writer of essays, children’s books, picture books, speculative fiction and blog entries. She shares a house with her husband, four children and 15 mental health diagnoses including depression, generalized anxiety disorder, panic disorder, ADHD, OCD and high-functioning Autism. Mix and match diagnoses and people. She’s been heard to say that there is too much psychology in her house. You can find Sandra on twitter @sandratayler or at her blog onecobble.com.
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