Daily Cuts - 8/28/17

1. Hi there. I hope everyone had a nice weekend. So now that we have the pleasantries covered, I want to share with you one of the best and most honest pieces of writing about obsessive-compulsive disorder I've read. 

Here's the piece. The author, a younger and far more talented writer than I, ​is a 24-year-old woman named Emily Dixon receiving her graduate degree from the Columbia School of Journalism: a great example of how OCD sufferers can both struggle immensely and also reach impressive heights. That's one of the interesting things about mental health problems: you usually can't see them.  OCD, in reality, usually doesn't look like the stereotypical handwasher, scrubbing and twitching and tapping away. But that doesn't mean the intense and frantic anxiety isn't there; the turmoil is indeed happening, on the inside. Of course many (most, probably) OCD sufferers exhibit observable symptoms, but they're nothing compared to what's going on internally. It takes some pretty good acting to disguise it.

Another worthwhile point Dixon's piece brought up is one that I've both heard and considered before. People say "I'm so OCD" (or something similar) all the time. I personally don't take offense to that. It doesn't come from a place of malice, and anyway I'm no shining example of inoffensiveness. But I do have two small issues with it. First, no one is obsessive-compulsive disorder, which is what "I'm OCD" means. If you have cancer, you don't say, "I'm so cancer." I don't generally hear people say, "I'm really diabetes," or "I'm herpes." Or "I'm so pubic lice." People would say that they're diabetic (adjective) or that they have crabs. It's just one thing about them, not the definition of who they are. Not sure why I'm veered into genital issues here, but the point I'm making here is that with mental issues, the way we speak of them ("He's really ADD" or "I'm so OCD") implies that people are the same thing as, are defined by, the malady. I just think it's worth considering. But maybe I'm just being really. . . OC[no "D"]. . .  about it.

2. A much sadder and scarier mental health drama than anything I've ever experienced came to a conclusion of sorts recently. You may have seen it in the news. This piece offers a good look at Michelle Carter and what her life was like when she urged her boyfriend to kill himself. What a horrifying story.

3. As someone who grew up in Maryland and amid prep school culture, this breaking news is of massive import to me.

4. Guys and girls probably text each other in roughly equal amounts. The difference is that I know absolutely nothing of import about any of my friends' lives. Whereas women text each other about what they're doing, how they're feeling, and what's going on in their lives, men tend to cover penis jokes, their latest bowel movement, and maybe sports. That's about it.

​5. And most importantly, God bless Meghan Abell. My sweet older sister passed into the next life a year ago yesterday, and while I miss her, I know she's in paradise.