OCD
Employment
While there is very little done on the overall demographic of OCD, the unemployment rate found in the population for people with OCD was double that of the average for that period, 16%1. 52%2 of people with OCD reported receiving no salary at all(Forster et al. 1996).
1 Searching for work actively and unsuccessfully, thus removing people who choose not to work, such as retirees.
2 Includes retirees and those who gave up looking for work
A general introduction to the quality of life of people with OCD has been done, confirming common-sense notions. OCD is correlated with depression, for example, and the quality of life of an individual worsens with comorbidities (Rodriguez-Salgado et al. 2006).
However, the main problem with understanding OCD for our purposes as neurominorities living in a society is that we have much more literature on the pathology of individuals with OCD than we do on their strengths and potential opportunities to fit within an organization, as well as realistic developmental trajectories that can allow a person with OCD to hit realistic growth landmarks with our own valid version of normal (Rodriguez-Salgado et al. 2006).
For all of the challenges OCD brings, “The main characteristics of the obsessive-compulsive personality disorder are conscientiousness, perfectionism, conformism, and devotedness to work” (Saß 2001). When traits are so dominant that they exist to the exclusion of others, traits become pathologies.
As individuals with OCD navigate key life decisions, it is important to remember that not all of the dominant traits which come with OCD are flawed cognitive wiring. To avoid throwing the baby out with the bathwater, it is important to target environments which can leverage the strengths one does possess cognitive pathways for and simply spend time balancing out one’s spread of abilities.
This could be achieved by allying/working with individuals with complementary skillsets, such as someone who can challenge more extreme traits more than the average person while being able to benefit themselves from superstrengths associated with OCD.
- ADHD who may struggle with orderliness and would be grateful to someone pointing out what they need to be kept on track.
- Autism who may struggle to conform in a way which serves their best interest and would be grateful for feedback on how to navigate situations.