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What is advocacy? It is defined as ‘public support for or recommendation of a particular cause or policy.’ Many individuals in the OCD community believe that to be an advocate, they have to publicly share their story about OCD on a large forum, including opening up about personal details.

However, OCD Awareness Week is designed to allow EVERYONE to become an advocate. The goal of OCD Awareness Week is to get the word out about what OCD really is. Not the ‘I like to organize my sock drawer by color’ OCD that makes it seem like a funny and quirky habit that the public may know. But instead, educating them on the REAL OCD: ‘constant and torturous taboo and intrusive thoughts that force individuals to engage in time-consuming and laborious physical and mental compulsions.’

So how do we get the general public to properly understand OCD? More than that, how do we ensure that doctors and other medical and mental health staff properly diagnose OCD? Or that insurance companies compensate for OCD treatment, laws protect those with mental disorders, and money is raised for OCD research? That answer is to get out the message of what OCD truly is and why it deserves more attention.

That is where you come in.

Although OCD Awareness Week, a week dedicated to raising awareness of obsessive-compulsive disorder, has concluded, we must continue to educate the public on this debilitating disorder. The public includes your family, friends, and acquaintances! It is okay if you are not comfortable with publicly sharing your story on a national level–you can still advocate in the spirit of OCD Awareness Week by sharing with a parent, friend, sibling, classmate, co-worker, or your romantic partner about OCD. Tell them what OCD really is and how much it affects a person with the disorder. Make sure that you feel comfortable or safe sharing with this person. You can share as little or as much as you want about your story. Remember, you are not required to open up and share more than you are ready to. This will educate more and more people about OCD, and this helps spread awareness. If you are not comfortable sharing your personal story, you can educate them on what OCD is using general facts and statements without opening up that you have it.

As this year’s OCD Awareness Week concludes, the spirit of advocacy and awareness continues, and we hope that you will keep that alive! We look forward to (hopefully) having our OCD Awareness Week 2021 event in-person and until then, we are here to support you and those in your life affected by the disorder. Email us with any questions: Info@OCDSoCal.org.

Take care!

Chris Trondsen, M.S., AMFT, APCC

Vice President, OCD Southern California, an official affiliate of the IOCDF

OCD Southern California’s Vice President, Chris Trondsen, opens up about his journey to recovery with body dysmorphic disorder (BDD). Chris, who also has obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD), wrote a recent blog post for the International OCD Foundation (IOCDF) in an entry titled “From Struggle to Success: My BDD Journey from Childhood To Today.”

In the blog post, Chris shares how BDD shaped and negatively impacted his life from age 8 until now. Chris has included pictures representing each stage of the BDD as well. The blog post is found on the IOCDF’s BDD website here: https://bdd.iocdf.org/blog/2020/10/09/from-struggle-to-success-my-bdd-journey-from-childhood-to-today/. Here are some excerpts from the blog post:

Make sure to read this recovery journey from BDD that will educate, inspire, and provide hope for those with BDD and their loved ones! Click the link to read the blog post: https://bdd.iocdf.org/blog/2020/10/09/from-struggle-to-success-my-bdd-journey-from-childhood-to-today/

Thank you so much for the incredible turnout for October 10th, 2020’s OCD Awareness Week kick-off event! We were excited to bring you the event—“OCD So Cal Presents: Support For Families,” in conjunction with our monthly Family and Loved One’s OCD Support Group.

Two of the presentations had PowerPoint slides, “Family Accommodation,” by Barbara Van Noppen, Ph.D., LCSW, and “Medications,” by Sean Sassano-Higgins, M.D. They are available below to either read or download; the download button is directly below the final slide in the PowerPoint. If you have any questions about the slides, please email us at: info@OCDSoCal.org.

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Download the "Family Accommodation" Slides