I totally understand. My sister and a close friend of my wife's both have OCD, and I have also had very mild obsessive tendencies, and it's definitely nothing to joke about. I think it has been over generalized to people who have a high attention to detail, almost "to a fault" - that fault being a supposed debilitating obsession.
A lot of people don't understand that OCD doesn't have the positive effect of producing perfectly crafted things. Instead, severe cases cause panicked, irrational understandings of reality.
(This is for anyone reading, trying to understand why this is offensive.) using "OCD" as a descriptor rather than saying simply that you obsess over details is reducing the awareness of actual OCD and other anxiety related issues.
I agree that's not so bad in general. In this particular case, however, when one wants to say that someone is obsessively preoccupied with irrelevant issues (which could be a valid issue), OCD is not a good choice, but 'detail-oriented' misses the point entirely.
Clueless isn't what they really mean, clueless means you have no idea what's going on. You can know what's going on but obsess over minute details or exact accuracy of statements that have no real bearing on the larger conversation. Clueless doesn't describe the tendency to do that. People call others obsessive compulsive all the time, no one's defending the self esteems of people with actual diagnosed OCD, because its understood its said with some levity and not being seriously derogatory to someone with serious issues with it.
Yes, I recognize the irony in pointing this out. I also recognize the irony we're even having this conversation because its due to the exact tendency the person was trying to describe, when in the grand scheme, no one cares.
Yes that's right.
The thing is that people have been using the term OCD as a pejorative term for someone who is "detail oriented" and that need to be avoided. (When not referring to the disorder specifically)
The ability to pay obsessive-compulsive attention to details has brought me more success and mental anguish than any other personality trait. My owner's guide to OCD.
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