First, for those who struggle with real world Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder (OCD) you know that it’s nothing to joke about and can lead to significant developmental and coping issues.

Second, for those who don’t know what OCD is, here is the clinical definition from the Mayo Clinic  – Obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) features a pattern of unreasonable thoughts and fears (obsessions) that lead you to do repetitive behaviors (compulsions). These obsessions and compulsions interfere with daily activities and cause significant distress.

Finally, OCD is a real issue affecting various people around the world. However, it also seems to be an appropriate analysis of the current conditions of main stream media outlets.

Example of OCD

One of the pattern’s noted in the Mayo Clinic was – OCD often centers around certain themes — for example, a fear of getting contaminated by germs. To ease your contamination fears, you may compulsively wash your hands until they’re sore and chapped.

I had a good friend, who used to work for me, and he took medication for OCD and a few other issues he dealt with.  Even through his medication, one area that he still obsessed over was money. Sometimes I gave him money from petty cash to go out and buy small things the business needed.

When I gave him the cash, he would count, recount, count and then recount the money I gave him (even if it was a single bill). Then, after he bought something, he would check the receipt with me over and over again. Before he could give me back the change he would count, recount, count and recount the money before he gave it to me. Often he would ask for the money back and repeat the process all over again. Just to make sure there were no mistakes nor anything left out.

Sometimes he would call me at night to explain that he forgot the extra 47 cents he found in his pocket. One time he called me at midnight to explain he found 2 cents in his work clothes and wanted to insure me he would return it in the morning.

Media and OCD

Pretty much every media outlet has shown they are able to fixate, over-analyze and over-hype pretty much any event. However, as each year progresses, it seems they’re OCD tendencies are starting to interfere with their objectiveness. Here are a few things the Mayo Clinic indicates are an issue with OCD. Below is my brief analysis on how they seem to correlate with our current mainstream press and their response to President Trump.

Obsession/Compulsion signs and symptoms include:

• Intense stress when objects aren’t orderly or facing a certain way.
  This is even more pronounced since President Trump is not known for his orderliness. This has caused both frequent and hysterical coverage to many of the comments he makes, especially on twitter.
• Images of hurting yourself or someone else that are unwanted and make you uncomfortable.
  Just watch any presidential press conference and you will find various reporters that are aggressively trying to hurt any agenda that makes them “feel uncomfortable” or that they disagree with.
• Thoughts about shouting obscenities or acting inappropriately that are unwanted and make you uncomfortable.
  Again, just watch how our media covers protests, especially when they turn violent, and how many outraged and out of sort pundits they bring on the various news and opinion shows.
• Compulsions are excessive and often are not realistically related to the problem they’re intended to fix.
  This is the most glaring example as the media continues to fixate on Russia and the election, even though no substantial proof has been established other than normal Russia/American political interactions.
• You may make up rules or rituals to follow that help control your anxiety when you’re having obsessive thoughts.
  It’s amazing how many times the news and media pundants complain anytime a politician ignores the rules or traditions of the past (like Trump not attending the correspondence dinner, or not calling on the “old guard” journalists during presidential news conferences).

One of the conclusions from Mayo Clinic is: OCD usually begins in the teen or young adult years. Symptoms usually begin gradually and tend to vary in severity throughout life. Symptoms generally worsen when you experience greater stress. OCD, usually considered a lifelong disorder, can have mild to moderate symptoms or be so severe and time-consuming that it becomes disabling.

I realize this is just a simple analysis, but it seems to me that the stress of having a “non-conforming, opinionated and aggressive president” who is outside of the political establishment has increased the stress of many news organization. And this increase in stress has increased the medias already problematic Obsessive-Compulsive tendencies.

In the end, it seems that the only way they will go into remission is when they force him out of office. If not, we have at least  three and a half more years of the Media’s Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder to contend with.

So if you’re like me and starting to feel the effects of all the negative pessimistic angry OCD of todays news outlets, maybe its time we all unplug for a while.