demystIfying ocd
In Ryyan’s honor, the Ryyan Chacra Foundation (RCF) aims to help young men open up about their often hidden struggles with obsessive-compulsive disorder.
OCD is a widely misunderstood condition.
According to NIMH, “Obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) is a long-lasting disorder in which a person experiences uncontrollable and recurring thoughts (obsessions), engages in repetitive behaviors (compulsions), or both.”
OCD is not, as it’s often represented in pop culture, a personality quirk. It’s not simply an affinity for cleanliness or organization. It is not the passing feeling one gets when they have left the house and feel the urge to go back and check the stove. And one is not a “little bit OCD” if they like to color-code their bookshelf or keep their home tidy.
Rather, OCD is a painful, complex, and varied brain disorder — one that can be crippling if not properly treated.
What Is OCD?
What Does OCD Look Like?
There is a saying: “If you've met one person with OCD, you've met one person with OCD.” In other words, OCD symptoms may look different from person to person, making the condition difficult to recognize. Symptoms can also vary in intensity over time with life’s stressors.
Nearly everyone experiences intrusive thoughts at some point in their life. But for a person with OCD, these unwanted and unpleasant intrusions can turn into “obsessions” that are impossible to turn off.
Such obsessions are often the most horrible, disgusting, or terrifying thoughts one could imagine.
Someone might believe they are going to harm themself or a loved one. They might fear that they will contract a horrible disease, engage in a disturbing sexual act, break the law, or act in a way that violates their religious beliefs.
An OCD sufferer’s obsessive thoughts typically run counter to their own values and morals. As such, they can be deeply distressing to the person experiencing them and induce feelings of shame and anxiety.
Those undergoing the hidden OCD thought process know their obsessions are flawed and illogical, but can do little to stop them. And while people with OCD rarely act upon their fears, they experience these intrusions as though they are real.
OCD sufferers may also engage in repetitive “compulsive” behaviors to temporarily alleviate their anxiety. Many become convinced that these compulsive rituals will prevent their worst fears from happening. However, while these compulsions can offer momentary relief, they can make the individual’s anxiety worse in the long run.
Because “compulsions” are sometimes more visible than “obsessions,” they are often what people think of when they think of OCD. For instance, compulsions can include excessive and repetitive handwashing, showering, or cleaning. Other examples include checking and rechecking locks and stoves to ensure one’s home is secure, counting objects or performing tasks a set number of times, constantly seeking reassurance about thoughts related to one’s obsessions, repeating words and phrases in one’s head, or avoiding situations that may trigger one’s obsessive thoughts.
And because obsessions are highly individual, people with OCD often develop individual compulsions that are specific to their fears. For example, someone who worries they will run someone over with their car may repeatedly drive in circles to make sure they did not hit anyone, or else repeatedly check their car for signs of damage or bloodstains.
Obstacles To Getting Help
People with OCD face a number of societal, practical, and emotional barriers to getting help. As a result, OCD often goes undiagnosed and untreated.
To start, there are the misrepresentations of OCD in the media, and the subsequent lack of public awareness of the complexity of the condition.
We believe that using the term “OCD” to jokingly refer to one’s quirks undermines the disease’s terrible impact on those who suffer most from it. It contributes to the misconceptions surrounding the condition, making it harder for the sufferer to recognize that they have it. It may also contribute to the shame one feels about their OCD diagnosis — shame that might prevent the sufferer from opening up to others and seeking help.
Additionally, OCD sufferers may feel that they are going “crazy,” or that they will act on their worst fears. As such, people with OCD may become determined to hide their symptoms for fear that they will be judged or that they will disappoint their loved ones. In fact, those with OCD often judge themselves most harshly and find it hard to conceive that others would not also.
This inability to talk about what is going on in their brains, combined with a lack of awareness by mental health and medical providers, leads to late diagnosis, with most individuals suffering for at least 11 to 17 years without appropriate diagnosis or treatment.
Even after a person is diagnosed, it can take time to find the right care. Not everyone responds to the medications commonly prescribed for OCD. And just as OCD presents differently from person to person, there is no one-size-fits-all treatment plan — though there are certainly treatments proven to help many patients, including cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) and selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs).
Because OCD can be incredibly disruptive to daily life and trigger feelings of shame and distress, it often leads to depression. And while depression is the brain disorder most commonly associated with suicide, OCD on its own can be debilitating.
A recent study of 36,788 Swedish OCD patients found that for people with OCD, the risk of dying by suicide is about 10 times higher than that of the general population.
OCD is often accompanied by other comorbid brain disorders, such as depression, bipolar disorder, or schizophrenia. And yet 43% of individuals assessed in the study who died by suicide did not have any other recorded psychiatric comorbidity.
Despite all of this, the public does not yet widely recognize OCD as a high risk factor for suicide.
OCD and Suicide
There Is Hope For People With OCD
While OCD is a serious brain disorder, people with OCD can live happy, successful, fulfilling lives. In fact, countless notable historical leaders and modern public figures are known to have had OCD.
Contemporary celebrities who have spoken out about their OCD struggles include: actor Daniel Radcliffe, writer-actor Lena Dunham, writer and YouTuber John Green, actor Megan Fox, singer Camila Cabello, singer-songwriter Fiona Apple, radio host Howard Stern, TV personality Howie Mandel, soccer player David Beckham, actor-comedian Alec Baldwin, and actor Leonardo Dicaprio.
And while it’s impossible to confirm, experts have also theorized that a number of successful figures from throughout history had OCD, including aviator and filmmaker Howard Hughes, engineer Nikola Tesla, theologian Martin Luther, scientist Charles Darwin, painter Michelangelo Buonarroti, and children’s writer Hans Chirstian Anderson.
Though Ryyan privately struggled with OCD for years, he was not diagnosed with OCD until January of 2024, in part due to the shame he felt around his symptoms.
Once he got his diagnosis, it was difficult to navigate the care system and to know where to find the right treatment. He sought psychiatric care and he went on suicide watch at the local hospital’s ER. He had the full love and support of his family and friends behind him.
He took his life in May of 2024 at the age of 28.
In the end, what was lacking for Ryyan and his family was information. With this in mind, one of RCF’s goals for 2025 is to create a professionally reviewed single sheet of information for hospitals to hand out when patients are brought in for suicide watch — something Ryyan’s family strongly wishes they were given.
As part of our initiatives, RCF also plans to support educational outreach efforts with the University of Colorado Anschutz’s OCD program.
We hope that our efforts will help dispel some of the stigma and misconceptions surrounding OCD, create a greater public awareness around the condition, and help others like Ryyan seek and access the care they need to live happy and fulfilled lives.
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