• by Les Luchter , Staff Writer, Yesterday

Quick! Name a fictional character with obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD).

Chances are that, like me, you thought of Adrian Monk, the TV detective who -- over eight seasons and 124 episodes starting in 2002 -- exhibited a frequent need to sanitize his hands, align objects, and touch every parking meter he passed, among other comedically displayed behaviors.

But OCD is often no laughing matter, as was made clear when the character displayed suicidal tendencies in “Mr. Monk’s Last Case,” a 2023 movie sequel.

Real-life OCD patients, it turns out, do die by suicide more than other people, notes Stephen Smith, founder and CEO of NOCD, a 10-year-old OCD-specific telehealth provider.

“The condition is not a joke,” Smith tells Pharma & Health Insider, calling it “a very serious, complex psychiatric condition that untreated [can lead] to many other challenging conditions such as severe depression, severe substance use disorders and even severe eating disorders.”

“Hollywood defines OCD often as a quirk, or a synonym for a someone who’s type A,” Smith says, but doesn't show “the main, very shame-provoking symptoms that oftentimes come alongside OCD. So the connotation is that OCD isn’t really a severe condition. In actuality, it’s ranked by the World Health Organization in the top 10 most disabling conditions.”

Filmmakers “aren’t maliciously trying to poke fun at OCD,” he adds. “They just don’t understand. That’s been the case with many terms that now have more awareness and people don’t use them in a casual-joking way” anymore.

More realistic fictional depictions of OCD can help spread awareness to address the problem.

Smith recommends “Turtles All the Way Down,” a 2017 novel and 2024 film. In that story, a teenage girl with OCD suffers a panic attack, drinks hand sanitizer by mistake and ends up hospitalized, among other plot twists. She also eventually learns to control her compulsions through behavioral techniques and medicine.

And now there’s “For All I Know,” (see film image above), an NOCD-sponsored 11-minute film streaming for free on Healthline Media’s website and YouTube channel. In the short, a pharmacist with OCD struggles to reconnect with her estranged adult daughter amid recurring memories of postpartum fears about harming her own baby. 

The woman, Smith explains, suffers from “a subtype of OCD called Harm OCD” in which the patient has “unwanted recurring thoughts, images and urges (that) oftentimes violate the person’s core values and character. She’s actually the least likely person to engage in a fear or in harmful behavior. To make the fears go away, people do very specific actions called compulsions. Those actions temporarily alleviate the person’s distress, but in the long term the fears grow worse and worse.”

Sam Sabawi, senior creative producer at  Healthline Media who wrote and directed “For All I Know,” has also worked with NOCD on an ongoing three-year-old awareness campaign that’s featured comedian Howie Mandel.  “We call it Know OCD, brought to you by N-O-C-D,” says Smith.

NOCD, along with Healthline, is spreading word about the new film, in the former’s case to its online community, which Smith says numbers in the millions.  “There are many people who have harm-based OCD fears, and we feel they should be able to understand that this is something that’s being talked about, that their journey is being recognized and validated. Our hope is that people can watch it and ultimately feel less alone.”

NOCD, which offers its services on a per-visit basis, has served hundreds of thousands of people during its decade-long history, doing close to 900,000 OCD therapy sessions annually, Smith says.