34 The Professional Counselor | Volume 13, Issue 1 factually based depictions of the disorder than the women who did not indicate a diagnosis in their TikTok videos. Our findings of two dichotomous themes are unsurprising given other findings on health-related misinformation on TikTok (e.g., Basch, Meleo-Erwin, et al., 2021; McCashin & Murphy, 2022), yielding opportunities for professionals to provide accurate information on the platform. The majority of women whose content fell in the accurately depicts OCD symptoms theme indicated they had an OCD diagnosis. These women corrected misinformation about OCD and also shared their own experiences of living with OCD, depicting the seriousness and pervasiveness of their obsessive thoughts. Our results indicate that women with OCD may desire to see OCD portrayed correctly in the media, in ways that are different from the stereotypical or comedic depictions often prevalent in mainstream media (Fennell & Boyd, 2014). These negative stereotypes may contribute to women’s oppression through the perpetuation of misinformation. Women with OCD also may be motivated by the fear of stigma (Steinberg & Wetterneck, 2017) and the desire to have their mental health diagnosis taken seriously. Fennell and Liberato (2007) noted the importance of societal conceptions of OCD to those with the diagnosis; therefore, the creators in our sample may be motivated to alter the popular understanding and trivialization of OCD (Pavelko & Myrick, 2016; Robinson et al., 2019) through their TikTok content as a result of living with the disorder themselves and the impact of their OCD symptoms on their functioning. Moreover, motivation to post publicly about one’s experience with OCD may help women connect with others (Fennell & Liberato, 2007) through a large social media platform. Yet our other main theme of minimizes OCD symptoms supports findings from previous research (e.g., Pavelko & Myrick, 2016; Robinson et al., 2019) that OCD is frequently depicted in the media and popular culture in a manner that minimizes the symptomatology or severity of OCD symptoms. Our results illustrate that the content created by women on TikTok often portrays OCD as synonymous with cleanliness and organization, hence trivializing OCD symptoms. Multiple TikToks (n = 4) utilized a popular audio: “You say OCD is a disease; I say it’s a blessing,” over a video of someone organizing, often some sort of household item, which aligns with previous findings that OCD is typically portrayed in the media by characters with washing and cleaning compulsions (Fennell & Boyd, 2014). Additionally, multiple videos in the uses OCD as a synonym for cleanliness or organization subtheme included language and descriptions that stigmatized cleaning symptoms, such as “*My bff being messy*,” *My OCD kicking in*,” and “I literally saved my toothbrush to like get the corners and clean cuz I’m OCD.” Despite cleanliness being the most visible depiction of OCD (Steinberg & Wetterneck, 2017) and more often seen in women with OCD than in men (APA, 2022), the way these symptoms are portrayed do not holistically represent OCD or encompass the potential effects of this disorder and instead contribute to the continued trivialization of this disorder. Implications Our findings yield various implications for counselors and future research. Because of the popularity and breadth of TikTok content, both clients and counselors are likely to use the app and subsequently view TikToks that contain minimizing, trivializing, or stigmatizing information about OCD. Counselors are not immune to holding stigmatizing views about OCD (Steinberg & Wetterneck, 2017). Exposure to trivializing content may influence how counselors view OCD symptoms and the severity of OCD with their clients, potentially contributing to misdiagnosing OCD. Our results indicate cleanliness and organization were the common depictions of OCD on TikTok, which could result in counselors having a limited understanding of OCD symptomatology and misidentifying other types of OCD symptoms that fall into groupings such as unwanted sexual
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