THE FUSE

When someone mentions OCD, what’s the first image to pop into your mind? Washing your hands too many times, perhaps, or repeatedly checking the oven before you go to bed? These common notions aren’t inaccurate, but unfortunately they show only one side of what’s actually quite a multifarious disorder: they’re the symptoms that occur most commonly in women. By contrast, men experience OCD in very different ways: their obsessive thoughts and repetitive behaviors don’t focus as often on themes of contamination, but instead on violence, sex, or religious blasphemy (to name a few). And this gender discrepancy creates other problems, too, making the experience of OCD a unique challenge for many men.