So I was watching Oprah on Dec. 9th and it was an episode on an "Obsessive Compulsive Disorder Camp". Dr. Jonathan Grayson with the help of Dr. Oz ofcourse, recruited individuals who displayed "obsessive compulsive" behaviours and thoughts, like being terrified of germs and constantly keeping clean and worrying about keeping clean, to undergo their camp of Exposure Response Therapy.

Now what bothered me was not the type of treatment that was used. Although it was VERY extreme (Dr. G got individuals to rub toilets and the inside of dumpsters and then lick their hands), it did not get to me as much as the language that was being used. These people were everyday people with genuine difficulties in dealing with the stressors of life. However, the Oprah show depicted them as something different. Words and phrases were thrown around like "this illness is the worst example of being trapped in our thoughts"; "it is terrifying to have this problem"; "irrational thoughts"; "crippling";"her OCD takes many forms"; "that's not normal", "fragile patients", "disabled", etc. etc. So now, instead of seeing these individuals as very normal people dealing with abnormal circumstances (like overarching systems attempting to control them, like poverty, like discrimination, like loss, like suffering, etc.), mainstream media has depicted them as crippled, as problems, as abnormal???!!!!! Even on Oprah????!! And I love Oprah! Gals and Guys, this issue of Negative Diagnostic Labelling/Branding is A LOT bigger then any one of us realizes.

In the episode, there were real issues and difficulties that these people were facing. Their behaviours did, to a large extent take over their lives as they explained. One man said that he lost his marriage and family due to his behaviours and thoughts taking over his life. However, the show did not go into WHY  these people were having such a difficult time overcoming these thoughts and behaviours. Nor did the show go into HOW  they became addicted to these thoughts and behaviours. There was little to no deeper, meaningful discussion of why and how these people were hurting so much. Ok, ok, there was a two minute little portion where they explained that one woman's sister had died and she had "survival guilt" so that's what "triggered it". But then she goes on to say that she's "probably always had it"!! WHAT??!! Wow. She's always had "OCD". This label was not even invented when she was born!! How could it be that she always had something that did not always exist?

I, myself, have difficulties with thoughts and behaviours taking over. I can also be overly clean to the extent where I would use a napkin to open doors. Do I have a disorder? Am I an "OCD fragile patient" as Oprah says?? Do you have any idea how disempowering this would be if I allowed myself to accept a destructive, negative label such as this? I am not disordered by any means. I am not fragile, nor am I crippled!! I am an ordinary person dealing with extraordinary circumstances that pose so many pressures and toxins on me. I have to fight every day to breath clean air (if there is any left), to live with my physical ailments and pains, to try and break free of the chains that larger systems and institutions tie me up in, to help others break free from their chains, to be able to survive and make a living in a world were there seems that there is more suffering and hurt then good. So, %#&!*% YEAH! I am going to be "Neurotic" every now and then and get lost in my thoughts and behaviours. But labelling me with a very DEMEANING label after you mainstream society has screwed me over is just a way to suck the life right out of me. It's called an attempt to MINDFUCK me. And many-o people, get mindfucked by this system.

Why Isn't this Issue of Diagnostic Labelling/Branding Being Seriously Harmful Spoken about?? Why doesn't Oprah know about this?? Why have I not heard it in news broadcasts or talk shows? Why have I not read it in newspapers or mainstream journals? What's going on here??? We love to talk about how the medications hurt us, but we would not need the medications if the diagnoses weren't there to begin with!!! That is the key people!! GET RID OF THE DSM (DIAGNOSTIC STATISTICAL MANUAL) and replace it with a different language. A more realistic, detailed language. A language that is focused on EMPOWERING rather then disempowering. A language that truly serves to HELP rather then hinder. Plain and simple, a language of love rather then hate.

Please Help Me to Bring this Issue to the Front Line Everyone!!