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" Around 1-2% of the population experience obsessive compulsive disorder; that&amp;#039;s over a million people in the UK according to the Royal College of Psychiatrists. But there is an average delay of 12 years between the onset of OCD and treatment being received. Whether that&amp;#039;s due to lack of\u00A0\u00A0understanding, fear of judgement or the stigma associated with mental health issues, that&amp;#039;s a shocking number of people who are spending over a decade without the help they need. UK charity OCD Action defines obsessive compulsive disorder as:   &amp;quot;People with OCD experience intensely negative, repetitive and intrusive thoughts, combined with a chronic feeling of doubt or danger (obsessions). In order to quell the thought or quieten the anxiety, they will often repeat an action, again and again (compulsions).&amp;quot; Common compulsions people might experience include excessive washing and cleaning, excessive checking, repetitive actions such as touching, counting, arranging, ritualistic behaviours and more.\u00A0 There&amp;#039;s a real lack of understanding around OCD in society.\u00A0As OCD Action say: &amp;quot;OCD is a serious, debilitating mental health condition. People with OCD do not enjoy their behaviours, nor can they &amp;#039;just snap out of them&amp;#039;. This condition can destroy lives. Unfortunately, this common misconception can often prevent people from reaching out and seeking help, as often people worry they will not be taken seriously. OCD is severe, but it is also very treatable, and we need to make people more aware of this.&amp;quot; Lily Bailey has been living with severe OCD from a very young age, and while fighting the obsessive thoughts and compulsive behaviours, she chose to write about her experiences in the memoir Because We Are Bad to help others. By candidly sharing how OCD has impacted her life, she sheds a light on a very difficult condition that few properly understand.  Lily and OCD Action talked to us about the biggest myths surrounding OCD.\u00A0Here&amp;#039;s what they said:  Myth: You can be a &amp;#039;little bit OCD  OCD Action: OCD is split up into two main components;\u00A0the obsessions, which are the unwanted, intrusive thoughts which cause anxiety, and the compulsions, which are the physical or mental rituals or actions which are carried out in order to alleviate the anxiety caused by the obsessions. Everyone will experience intrusive thoughts at some point in their life, and maybe habits or rituals too, but most can dismiss the thought and move on with their day. For people with OCD, this is not the case. This can only be described as a disorder, when these obsessions and compulsions start to have an impact on your life, and become a vicious cycle which cause you extreme anxiety. So yes, you can be a &amp;#039;little obsessive&amp;#039; but you can&amp;#039;t be &amp;#039;a little bit obsessive compulsive disorder&amp;#039;. Lily: The idea of being &amp;#039;a little OCD&amp;#039; about something has become so assimilated into our daily language that it&amp;#039;s doubtful most people think twice about throwing the term out there once in a while. The vast majority of those using the phrase do so out of genuine ignorance rather than malicious intent.  It&amp;#039;s seen as a convenient, cute way of saying &amp;#039;I&amp;#039;m a little particular about such and such.&amp;#039; In reality, no, you can&amp;#039;t really be a little bit OCD about your pens being colour coordinated, in the same way as you can&amp;#039;t be a little bit diabetic because sometimes you eat too many sweets and then you feel a bit queasy. The phrase itself makes no literal sense - OCD stands for obsessive compulsive disorder. The key word here being disorder. Those with genuine OCD have a real illness - and one so serious in fact that the WHO has ranked it in the top 10 most disabling conditions globally. Sufferers may spend all their waking hours engaged in their routines, and become unable to leave the house. Some, like me, even attempt to end their own lives. So you&amp;#039;ll understand that we get a little irked when hearing the phrase bandied around in ways that would be considered totally unacceptable for other illnesses. Myth: Having OCD means you like things neat and tidy  OCD Action: As described earlier, OCD is characterised by obsessions and compulsions. A compulsion for someone with OCD could be the need to keep things in order or symmetrical, but this is definitely not the case for everyone with OCD, and those who carry out these compulsions most certainly do not enjoy them, rather they carry out the compulsion to get rid of extreme anxiety caused by a thought. For many with OCD, being neat and tidy most likely won&amp;#039;t bother them any more than someone without the condition. Lily: The key problem with misusing the phrase OCD is that every time someone does this, a step is taken away from understanding what it really means to have it. At my secondary school, people frequently used this term to infer, mostly, that they liked things to be neat and tidy. And the gleeful tones in which the words were shrieked indicated that they found their organisational activities a source of pleasure and personal pride. If you&amp;#039;d asked me what OCD was, I probably would have said: &amp;#039;it&amp;#039;s people who like to keep their things neat.&amp;#039;  As a result, it came as a shock when a doctor told me that the mental torment I had no name for that was taking over me was in fact OCD. &amp;#039;No, you&amp;#039;ve got it wrong,&amp;#039; I thought. &amp;#039;I make endless lists in my head of things I&amp;#039;ve possibly done wrong all day. It&amp;#039;s not a hobby I enjoy and it&amp;#039;s got nothing to do with cleaning.&amp;#039; I did not know then what I now know - that to have OCD only requires that you suffer from obsessions (unwanted thoughts, fears and ideas) followed by compulsions (the action you take, whether physical or mental, in response to the obsession), and that they cause you significant distress. Obsessions and compulsions can be anything. From thinking you might have run over a child in your car and so repetitively retracing your route, to holding your mouth shut because you fear you might start shouting out swear words in public. But most people don&amp;#039;t associate OCD with those sorts of things, because our casual use of the term limits any real understanding of the disorder in the public consciousness. As such, people may spend years battling in silence with a terrifying mental anguish they have no name for. Lily&amp;#039;s advice on coping with OCD        OCD is a tough beast that can take over your life in the most complex and uncomfortable ways. But the good news is, with hard work and persistence, recovery is possible. If you think you&amp;#039;re in the grips of OCD, speak to your doctor. GPs are becoming better at recognising all OCD, and not just the stereotypical symptoms like straightening things and tidying. The appropriate course of action would then be for your GP to refer you for cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT), a special type of behaviour therapy that aims to get you better by thinking about and then changing how you respond to your thoughts.  Family and friends can be crucial in your recovery, but perhaps not in the way you&amp;#039;d expect. The instinct of those who see their loved ones in distress is to offer them reassurance that their fears are unfounded, and that they needn&amp;#039;t worry. The problem is, the seeking of reassurance in itself becomes a compulsion for the sufferer, and well meaning people end up feeding into and perpetuating the condition in this way. If you know someone with OCD and want to help, the important thing is to be there for them emotionally and let them know how much you care, without letting yourself become a vehicle to fulfilling their compulsions. This is harder than it sounds, but good healthcare professionals will be happy to offer advice as to how those around someone with OCD and put this into practice. For more information about the diagnosis and treatment of Obsessive Compulsive Disorder, visit http://www.ocdaction.org.uk/  "^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://www.netdoctor.co.uk/conditions/a26751/myths-about-obsessive-compulsive-disorder/>