Pop culture has reduced OCD to quirks and punchlines, making a mockery of those who live with the condition

From Monica Geller in Friends and Dr Kevin Casey in Scrubs, to Sheldon Cooper in The Big Bang Theory, OCD and its sufferers have been problematically represented by popular culture through decades, thereby reducing their struggles to mere punchlines and quirks. In short, it looked nothing like the quirks of Friends’ Monica Geller or The Big Bang Theory’s Sheldon Cooper, or even Scrubs’ Dr Kevin Casey. “A lot of these conditions of psychological discomfort, like fear, anxiety, depression, carry a bio-physiological element… These conditions or dealing with them don’t depend on someone’s ‘mental strength’. The countless ‘How OCD are you?’ quizzes on the internet, or American reality star Khloe Kardashian’s appropriation of the condition for her ‘Khlo-C-D’ campaign last year — a series featuring “lazy girl hacks for cleaning everyday objects” — are all examples of damaging representations of the disorder, doing serious disservice to its sufferers. Over the years, I’ve turned pro at meticulously skipping the bits where Monica gets jittery over making her surroundings “Monica-clean” while watching Friends reruns.