The Professional Counselor | Volume 13, Issue 1 33 the words “Live with ______ for a day” across the screen. A woman is then pictured “selecting” OCD from a variety of mental health diagnoses. In other TikToks, users describe their compulsions, such as a woman narrating her need to perform various rituals like choosing a certain color shirt, or another in which a woman flips a light switch repeatedly. Corrects Misunderstanding The first subcategory, corrects misunderstanding, encompasses videos in which women with OCD sought to correct misinformation or inaccurate portrayals about OCD. Eight of the 20 videos from the second category are included in this subcategory. The following quote demonstrates a woman debunking popular misconceptions of OCD symptoms: “What people think OCD is *picture of an organized desk.* What it’s like for me: *woman spraying perfume.* My brain: ‘spray it 3 times or your mum will die.’” In another TikTok, a woman lamented the prevalent, stigmatized view of OCD: OCD is not cute. She doesn’t wear big glasses and chunky sweaters while she neatly lines up her stationary in color order. She’s probably the most misunderstood disorder, to the point where people nonchalantly use her name to describe a neat person. Importantly, the speaker describes OCD as “misunderstood,” directly contradicting the previously described “version” of OCD as simply a proclivity for neatness or organization. Shares Obsessive Fears In this subcategory, shares obsessive fears, women provided more specific information and details in their TikToks to depict OCD in a more holistic, accurate manner. Eleven videos are included in this subcategory. The fears women shared included the deaths of loved ones, losing one’s job, accidentally setting one’s house on fire, losing a relationship, and not locking one’s front door. One woman’s TikTok portrayed the intrusive thoughts and subsequent fears she experienced frequently: Documenting a side of OCD that people don’t usually see: Did I tell my mom I love her before she went to bed? What if she dies on the way to work tomorrow? Should I wake her up and tell her just in case? No, that will make her mad. Wait, but did I lock the doors? Did my sister make it home safe? She didn’t text me; her location is off. Oh, she’s fine; she just responded. Should I check the locks? This quote demonstrates the intrusive thoughts that individuals with OCD often experience. More specifically, the intrusive thoughts in this example include fears such as death of a loved one, uncertainty, and potential lack of safety for self and others. Discussion The purpose of this study was to increase understanding of how women are portraying OCD on TikTok to inform counselors on the current social discourse around OCD. Our findings substantiate the extant literature and provide new insight, possibilities, and practice implications given this novel exploration of how women discuss OCD on TikTok. The categories that emerged from our content analysis reveal the variety in the types of TikToks women created and hashtagged with the term “OCD,” with the two main themes being minimizes OCD symptoms, demonstrating the trivialization of OCD by women on TikTok, and accurately depicts OCD symptoms, in which women attempted to correct inaccurate perceptions about OCD by sharing their own experiences and factual information about the diagnosis. Our results also suggested that women with an OCD diagnosis shared more
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