Obsessive Compressive Disorder

The raccoon always struggled to make his surroundings tidy. “Oh, these pencils are out of their position… oh, this desk is crooked… I have to fix them.”

Also, he couldn't feel at ease without having a tightly-packed schedule. “I have to wake up at 7 tomorrow, and then I have to finish getting ready by 7:10…”

Sometimes he continued to wash his hands for more than 10 minutes. 

“It’s not good enough yet, it’s not good enough yet. If I touch people around me with my hands, I might make them sick….” 

He felt always uncomfortable if he couldn't complete his tasks in a fixed order. 

One day in art class he had to build a castle with a group of his classmates. 

“Let’s make a ginormous castle together!” 

“Yeah, let’s do it!” 

“I’m so excited!”

 However, he couldn't concentrate on this task.

He was busy arranging pencils that his friend dropped, and he couldn't help worrying about the imprecise work. 

“Hey, Raccoon! Why are you so uptight about tiny details? It’s strange!”

The raccoon couldn't stand their mockery.

“I cannot tolerate such a mess!!!”

 He ran into the restroom.

His classmate agreed with the others, adding,

“What a strange boy. That reminds me, he is always reluctant to hold hands in dance class!”
“He sucks, doesn’t he?”
“Yeah, I saw him suddenly run to wash his hands regardless of whether it was during class or break time.” “When I went to his house and invited him to play with us, he refused because it was more important for him to follow his schedule. "

“We don’t have to be his friend anymore if he's got such a bad attitude!” 

“Yeah, for sure!” 

The bear, who kept silent up until this point, suddenly began to speak.

“Well… I think I should tell you guys that Raccoon is suffering from a disease…. I heard that he's so nervous because of Obsessive Compulsive Disorder .” 

“Obsessive Compulsive Disorder ?”

 “It's also called OCD. It's a disease in which patients can't help doing specific behaviors in order to calm themselves down.” 

The class was speechless.

The raccoon came back to the classroom. 

His classmates apologized, saying that they didn't know about his condition. “Could you tell me about about that?" asked one of them. 

The raccoon was deeply moved and said, 

“Thank you, everybody. Let's talk about OCD while we make a castle.”

The castle that they made together turned out beautiful.

Commentary

Obsessive Compulsive Disorder is a mental disorder which is hard to overcome due to obsessions or compulsion even though patients know their symptoms. They include not only excessive methodical and hygiene concept as shown by the Raccoon, but also aggressive ideas of religion, moral, and so on. It is important to understand the difference between people who has OCD and who does not such as just neat person and religious people. Wrong cognition of OCD prevents us from understanding patients who really suffer from disorder. OCD invades patients’ daily lives with discomfort, breaks human relationships, and robs a huge amount of time. It will be helpful for patients to alleviate symptoms that surrounding people understand and support them.

Reference：“Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder (OCD)”

Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder (OCD) - HelpGuide.org

"What It's Actually Like Living With OCD"