OCD—misuse of term

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OCD doesn’t mean being nitpicky. It means worrying a lot and having obsessions, and sometimes giving in. Cleaning your room all the time is NOT OCD. Washing your hands six times every morning IS OCD. Why do people misuse the term?

It is hard to understand a disorder if you don't have it. Being married to someone that has a disorder often enables you to figure it out after a few years. But, many Aspies can't even get to that point...

That makes sense

Is it OCD if you like having a clean house and get upset if anyone doesn't follow your rules of being clean and it also drives you crazy when there are messes or even crumbs on the counter? This drove my whole family crazy and to me I don't see the big deal here. I mean how hard is it to keep clean and wipe up those damn crumbs when you are done making a sandwich? How hard is it to sweep up your mess you left on the kitchen floor or put your things away when you are done with it or hang up your coat or put your shoes away? I thought this was OCD here but now I am not sure since I had no worries and I actually liked having a clean house and I had no fear behind it. It only gave me distress if everyone kept on making messes but it would cause the same amount of distress if someone kept coming into my room and taking things and I wouldn't call that OCD.

It's OCD if you keep having intrusive thoughts that an unexpected visitor will come over & judge you negatively for having not perfect room & gossip it all over town. My OCD isn't like that but I've known someone who's was

I think people misuse the term because the examples you have are common stereotypes, and like League_Girl said, those can be forms of OCD. It just depends on the amount of distress the thoughts cause and whether or not there is a compulsion involved.

I think of OCD as if you were swimming in a big pool and you were suddenly dunked under water and couldn’t breathe or come up for air. Occasionally, you were allowed to come to the surface and take a deep breath, only to be immediately dunked back under the water again. Let’s pretend in this hypothetical situation you never actually drown, but over time you learn to deal with being under water and live that way. In this scenario, the dunking under water symbolizes the obsession, and the occasional breath of air symbolizes the compulsion. Most of the time, you are constantly anxious, distressed, depressed, and on edge from being dunked under water, but the few breaths of air are the compulsions that allow for a moment’s peace.

That’s just an example made-up scenario of course, but it can give people without OCD a glimpse into what people with OCD deal with every single day. People who are just “nitpicky” don’t ever get dunked under water in the first place because there is no suffering or anxiety/distress as a result of their “nitpickiness.”