Via Cosmopolitan Middle East 

Our beloved Tunisian-Egyptian star Hend Sabry recently made an appearance on the popular YouTube channel AB Talks with Anas Bukhash. In her interview, Hend shared a lot of herself with the public, such as her childhood life and her personal struggle with OCD.

Just like many other people who are mentally grappling every day with this disorder, she has her own struggles with it. So, we would like to shed more light on OCD and what its real symptoms are—not just how its misconceptions are seen.

What is OCD as a mental illness?

Simply put, the abbreviation that’s OCD stands for Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder, which indicates that this disorder revolves around obsessions and compulsions. According to that, the person who suffers from OCD experiences a bunch of unwanted thoughts that cause them constant distress. As a result, they tend to overcome such thoughts by performing a ritual or what seems to be a compulsive behaviour.

Unlike what people may think, these obsessions are not something used to show off or call for attention. On the contrary, they actually make this person’s life incredibly difficult as such habits get into their heads when doing other things or even thinking about something else.

Via International OCD Foundation

What are the misconceptions of OCD?

Some people in Egypt think It’s all about loving order and being too neat or a ‘neat-freak’. Unfortunately, due to lack of awareness, whenever someone hears about someone having OCD, they immediately think that the person in question is obsessed with fixing a crooked portrait on the wall or washes their hands every 5 minutes or likes having the spoon and fork aligned properly in a restaurant!

These stereotypes have piled up in peoples’ minds because many are cavalier with using the word “OCD” to refer to things that aren’t actually connected with the disorder. Therefore, allow us to say once and for all that OCD is not about being too organised or an attention seeker; it’s a serious mental illness that none of us should take lightly!