It’s Time to Stop Saying "I’m So OCD"—Here’s What to Say Instead

You’ve said it when explaining how you can’t get work done if your room’s messy. Your work wife has used it to explain why her to-do list is color coordinated based on priority. If we had to guess, we’d say the term latched onto the vernacular somewhere between As Good As It Gets and MTV’s True Life. But saying “I’m so OCD,” when you don’t have that diagnosis is actually problematic. As mental health has taken center stage in recent years, it’s time to reevaluate and truly put some thought into the way we view obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD), because it’s way more than a throwaway term to describe quirky behavior. Let’s take a deep dive into what the condition is and why we need to stop using the term OCD so casually.