How a new generation of musicians are facing OCD

II don’t really like George Ezra songs. I couldn’t find myself shouting, “Yes, George!” A 26-year-old singer-songwriter wins a British male solo artist at the 2019 Brit Awards. However, the other day, I read a news story entitled “George Ezra” OCD“I couldn’t help thinking that when I was a teenager I could have done it in George Ezra.

“ Often, OCD involves physical actions that must be performed to calm the mind, ” Ezra explains in a layman’s language of the upset, while “ pure O ” is in my condition. Yes, there is some controversy within the OCD community about the effectiveness of the term pure O, “only experiencing a pattern of thought without a physical part.” For many people, OCD is OCD. There is no doubt that this musician clearly knows that he suffers from mental illness.

Obsessive-compulsive disorder It is a very misunderstood disease. It ruins life. The World Health Organization lists OCD as one of the 10 most disabled people in the world. I don’t know that because the language is frivolous. Earlier this week, in response to the Covid-19 crisis, Wall Street Journal An article titled “We All Need OCD Now” has been released. Recently, I was almost concerned that the only way to keep both myself and my family safe was to cut off each finger. It is no exaggeration to say that you do not agree with Wall Street JournalPerspective.

I was 19 when obsessive-compulsive disorder entered my life. I slept well one night. The next morning, I woke up. I was convinced that I was infected with HIV from a recent tattoo (I did not). I overdid the NHS advice line, and the poor on-call nurse on the other side of the phone sighed when she realized she was me. In retrospect, it has been there for years, frustrating, rushing and dictating my decision. I knew why I needed to hit the door frame three times before walking, so I felt uneasy until the next time.

That’s why in pop culture, as we know, visibility is important and it’s so important that someone known as Ezra has moved forward. It took years to find my OCD idol. Ramones has been more or less my favorite band since the cool director of the local youth club played me a cassette of their energetic 1979 live album alive! Almost 20 years later in 2011, I Mojo Magazine with a band on the cover. Inside, the story of a singer’s fight with obsessive-compulsive disorder was told. Joey’s OCD was so severe that the doctor told his mother that he did not consider his son equivalent. What is that phrase the child says? “I felt like …”

As an aside, some claim that OCD killed Joey Ramone. True, he had lymphoma. He was recovering at the time of his death. However, he only encountered the eve of the ice he saw slipping and breaking a chemically frozen hip-a hospital where it was discovered that, due to obsession, the lymphoma returned. Led to readmission. He was just looking for relief. Why did Joey go to New Year’s Eve 2000? To relieve repeated concerns that he had locked the door properly. He died on April 15, 2001 at the age of 49.

Music production and OCD are uneasy companions. Obsessive-compulsive disorder is a disease that causes fatigue, lack of daily life, and uncertainty. For many, tours can certainly be an additional challenge in the area of ​​underground music. Nashville’s quirky indie rocker Chad Howard’s paper route said Vice Learn how his OCD was negatively impacting his band experience in 2017. “As a performer, you need to be present, above all,” he said. “road [OCD] What is clear to me is that I am worried about the unknown future and the potential for catastrophe. I really regret having toured for more than 10 years and I don’t have many memories … ”

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Meanwhile, music fans who suffer from OCD have played detectives for years and hope to find someone who reflects us in the piece of the song. I’ve been reading through the lyrics of Loyle Carner’s “NO CD”, Mitski’s “Humpty” and Kid Cudi’s “Trapped In My Mind” and trying to find affirmations that somebody understands. Few people are clear about their experience about the state of their work. A rare exception is singer-songwriter Fiona Apple. The music has a nod for her attachment and remorse. “I was really obsessive-compulsive disorder,” Apple said. El “In the worst case, I had to leave the house at 3:00 am and go out into the alley, because the paper towel roll in the recycle bin turned out to be uncomfortable. I would fall into the trash. “

For years, OCD felt otherwise either absent or embezzled in the pop culture landscape. Indeed, Martin Scorsese, Stanley Kubrick, Beethoven, and Michelangelo are often listed on the aggregation website as OCD victims, but, except for Scorsese, in 2004, AviatorA film about Howard Hughes, a great film director and chronic OCD victim, was hardly to grab. But that seems strange. New York-based comedian John Fish excels at the ridiculous rise of the state’s ridiculous nature in his podcast Spiral up. Lena Dunham amplification of my OCD at HBO Girls This was the first time many of us have seen such honest expressions on television. Last year, we got our own sitcom, a six-part series on Channel 4 Pure, Based on a groundbreaking 2015 memoir of the same name by victim RoseBretécher.

In music, it is exciting to report that there is a new wave of artists who are talking about OCD without shame or fear-a definitive new generation. There is the Scottish emo band Vukovi. Fall Better, Recording the trauma experience of singer Janine Shilstone’s disease. “As long as I remember, I thought someone was following me,” she says. “I don’t feel lonely in the room. I always think that things are with me. If you do something wrong, you will be punished. It will reward me if I do something good. The future direction is to unravel all of this and consider thinking as magic, not just as OCD … I don’t know. “

There is also American rapper NF. He articulates the truth about his condition in the song. “Leave Me Alone” excerpted from the fourth album Search, Which was released last year, actually describes the experience of having a diagnosis of OCD in poetry. There is a great video interview with him on the German hip hop channel 16bars. A Michigan-based rapper details his experience with the “gold standard” of OCD treatment, cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) and exposure response therapy (ERT). It took over 15 years to find this information. It is currently on YouTube.

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There is also an indie pop band Orchard based in Brighton, with a calm atmosphere. The music is increasingly influenced by singer Lucy Evers’ OCD. Their latest single, titled “Magical Thinking,” takes its name from the form of OCD in which patients believe that their thinking can affect the outside world. “We live because of the idea that we can save the confusion and grief we felt before diagnosis from someone,” says Evers, who has become visibly emotional in a video interview.

It is not just Evers who feels about this. I remember a boy who was at the beginning of my OCD journey and know how much respect was for the honesty of people like George Ezra. The new wave of OCD voices has helped to survive a disease that has been so long sought to silence and humiliate patients.