even in the dust, we shine

"You'd never make fun of someone for having a physical illness, but folks make all kinds of offhand remarks about people having mental illnesses and never give it a second thought." 

"...also tend to minimize those disorders, using them as nicknames for things people do, think, or say, that may not exactly be universal, but are still basically healthy."

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"it makes sense to say "you're a little stupid", so "I'm a little OCD" makes sense too right?" 

Today I had a rather long debate about whether it's ok to say "a little OCD" with my friend (and hi if you see this, it's not a personal attack I swear haha) and idk my feelings and thoughts were all over the place and I had so much to say because it's a topic I really care about??? And we debated about quite a number of things (and my argument might have been weak then because I was weak lol) BUT thinking back now, I realized that why I was so upset in the first place when someone blogged about how they were "a little bit OCD" was because OCD was being used as an adjective. And to compare "a little bit stupid" to "a little bit ocd" just shows how much people still regard ocd or any other mental disorders AS AN ADJECTIVE similar to "stupid". 

Like let me put it into context here,
OF course you can say you're "a little bit stupid" or "a little bit blur" if you make a SMALL mistake
 But do you say things like I have "a little cancer" or "a little tuberculosis" just cause you have a SLIGHT fever/runny nose/cough/etc????? No right?????? It's either you have it or you don't??? (also using physical illnesses instead of mental illnesses because ppl still can't see mental illnesses as ILLNESSES) 

And you don't use physical illnesses as adjectives right?? SO WHY ARE MENTAL DISORDERS BEING TREATED LIKE IT'S NOTHING AND BEING THROWN AROUND LIKE A COMMON ADJECTIVE????? 

People probably think I'm being too sensitive or think that I'm exaggerating the whole situation BUT I don't say stuff like this for no absolute reason. 

I've seen a coursemate of mine present a whole proposal of doing a campaign to raise awareness about OCD BUT the next day I overheard him saying "aiya don't need so neat la, she not so OCD one". LIKE HELLO so what?????? Your whole "I want to raise awareness for ocd" is just cause you want to get a good grade and impress the CHAT representative????? You don't seem like you even give a shit about OCD or even know much about it in the first place because if you did you wouldn't be reinforcing the stereotypes BECAUSE YOU SHOULD KNOW HOW SERIOUS IT IS  

I've seen videos and movies blatantly making fun of OCD and treating it as a joke to make their audience laugh, because YA OCD IS FRICKING FUNNY AND WHO CARES ABOUT HOW DISTRESSING IT IS OR HOW MANY LIVES IT RUINS BECAUSE IT'S NOT A MENTAL DISORDER, IT'S A RIDICULOUS JOKE I CAN ADD TO MY MOVIES TO MAKE PEOPLE LAUGH. 

And almost every single day people are using "ocd" and treating it like any other common adjective like "neat" or "perfect" or "organized" and making it seem like it's not a big deal at all. 

People think I'm overreacting because they don't know what goes on behind the scenes and they don't know what it's like to have your entire life be treated as a joke even when it's the LEAST funny thing that's ever happened to you. Please la put yourselves in my shoes for 2 seconds and Google "ocd" or search it on Twitter and see just how many people don't even look it as an anxiety disorder that warrants actual medical attention/help... Then you can come and tell me I'm overreacting. 

This is why majority of people with ocd don't even seek help BECAUSE STIGMA AND STUPID STEREOTYPES like ocd is hard enough already please don't make it any harder