Amrou Al-Kadhi on the painful truth of OCD and why it can be a truly debilitating disease

Amrou Al-Kadhi (Images: Nick Delisi)

I don’t like it when people flippantly use the phrase, “Oh, I was a bit OCD the other night!” You hear it in conversation: “Oh, I was a bit of a clean freak the other week; I washed my hands a lot — was getting a bit OCD!”  

Like a lot of psychological terms that get bandied about on Instagram wellness graphics, the term has woven its way into colloquial conversation when, in fact, it has quite a specific and profound meaning. 

The reason it frustrates me is that I have suffered with severe OCD — Obsessive Compulsive Disorder — since the age of seven. I’ve been in every kind of therapy and taken every kind of medication to help battle what is an exhausting

READ MORE OF THIS POST AT Attitude