Written by: Isabella Janowicz
Edited by: Taina Stuart
In TV and film, people with Obsessive Compulsive Disorders (OCD) are often misrepresented as being overly focused on cleanliness, hygiene, order, and perfectionism. Media can often depict people with OCD as potentially violent due to compulsions, repetitive behaviors that are done in order to subdue the obsessions, which both misrepresents and sensationalizes the disorder. Deducing people with OCD to being obsessed with cleanliness causes the term to be used in a misrepresented colloquial manner, where people often jokingly label one another with this condition, saying “that’s so OCD,” due to habits such as cleaning instead of a proper diagnosis.
Media portrayal of mental conditions through humourous or violent imagery, like often seen with OCD, spreads misinformation about the condition and ostracizes the group of people from seeking out proper treatment (Srivastava et al). OCD is a disorder in which an individual experiences unwanted obsessions in the form of thoughts, images, urges, and compulsions that manifest in a degree that interferes with the individual’s daily life (Mayoclinic).
HBO’s Girls (2012) main character, Hannah Horvath, is portrayed in two episodes as having an OCD episode. Hannah previously had experienced compulsions in high school but had not experienced any symptoms of the disorder while in college. Living post-grad she experiences the stress of sudden success by landing a book deal, and starts exhibiting old symptoms she experienced in high school, such as compulsively counting numbers and closing doors. OCD is known to be exacerbated by stress; during periods of high pressure symptoms worsen (Morgado). The wave of compulsive episodes frequency leads many to not seek OCD treatment until years into living with the disorder.
Hannah hadn't had an OCD episode in years, and as a result, had stopped taking her OCD medication and didn;t continue to pursue proper treatment for her condition. This left her debilitated from conducting daily activities like getting out of bed on her own while in this mental state. This accurately represents people with this disorder because of the nature of inconsistency in symptoms that can be exhibited in some people, yet OCD severity ranges and treatment is personalized.
During one scene of the episode Hannah begins to poke her eardrum with a q-tip, continuing to go further and further until it satisfies her compulsion, the sounds of hissing can be heard after the rupture. This event resulted in her being hospitalized. Hannah tells the physician treating her that she has been experiencing a decline in her mental state due to anxiety. She explained that her actions were prompted by the need to “clean herself out.” Although Hannah did not disclose her past OCD diagnosis, she displayed clear symptoms of the condition. The physician brushed off her comments, instead only offering further medical attention if she had continued hearing trouble. She was only treated for her injury and was not provided proper care for her mental state that resulted in her physical condition. Later on in the last scene of the episode, Hannah repeats her earlier actions to the other eardrum, puncturing it in a state of mental disarray and anxiety after running into her ex-boyfriend.
Compulsions occur based on the need to fixate and subdue the obsessive thoughts in the form of repeat actions, trumping all other thoughts of possible harm or trivial motions– this fixation becoming debilitating in both the mental and physical states.
The portrayal of Hannah’s OCD in this scene avoids the stereotype of cleanliness and phobia of disorderliness usually portrayed in media, that misrepresents to the public the full extent at which people living with OCD experience isolation. This portrayal differentiates the condition away from the lighthearted colloquial way it's used in conversation and instead reveals a side of the condition that deals with distress that requires immediate medical attention.
Accurate representation in media allows for a conversation towards better understanding what OCD is like in affected individuals, as well as helping those people feel more understood, represented, and less ostracized so as to seek professional treatment.
References:
Morgado, P, et al. “Perceived Stress in Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder Is Related with Obsessive but Not Compulsive Symptoms.” Frontiers in Psychiatry, U.S. National Library of Medicine, 2 Apr. 2013, www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3613755/.
“Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder (OCD).” Mayo Clinic, Mayo Foundation for Medical Education and Research, 11 Mar. 2020, www.mayoclinic.org/diseases-conditions/obsessive-compulsive-disorder/symptoms-causes/syc-20354432.
Srivastava, Kalpana, et al. “Media and Mental Health.” Industrial Psychiatry Journal, U.S. National Library of Medicine, 2018, www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6198586/.
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