I Got Tired of Inaccurate OCD Stories. So I Made an Honest One.

By Sam Sabawi

There's a particular kind of loneliness that comes from seeing obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) portrayed everywhere and recognizing it nowhere. The media has given OCD visibility at the cost of stripping away everything that makes it a disorder. Because OCD doesn't happen on the surface — it happens in the thoughts beneath.

Most people with OCD are highly functioning, performing everyday tasks while fighting thoughts they'd never say out loud. That invisibility is precisely what makes the disorder so isolating and precisely what the media refuses to portray.

Here's the insidious part: inaccurate representation doesn't just stigmatize patients — it biases clinicians. One study found that 50.5% of OCD cases are misdiagnosed by primary care physicians, the frontline providers most people see (1.) While estimates vary, some studies have found that the average person with OCD waits 14-17 years for a correct diagnosis. That’s nearly two decades. 

I don't think the entertainment industry is conspiring to misrepresent OCD. The reason OCD stories default only to visible compulsions isn't a creative choice — it’s creative avoidance. The real disorder lives in impossible-to-film territory: the space where your thoughts stop feeling like yours and start feeling like evidence; evidence that the things you fear most must be true.

OCD hides in the thoughts we can't easily show on screen. But not addressing them perpetuates the problem. It tells people their obsessions are uniquely concerning, prevents recognition, and delays treatment.

As a filmmaker and producer at Healthline, I've spent years learning how to communicate health information through storytelling. I am also someone who lives with OCD. It was important for me to tell a story that I feel truly embodies the difficulties someone with the disorder lives with while battling their intrusive and unwanted thoughts. That is why I wrote and directed the short film, For All I Know.

For All I Know centers on a pharmacist whose buried history of postpartum intrusive thoughts resurfaces when her estranged daughter visits unexpectedly. In making this film, I wanted to show what the disorder actually looks like when the compulsions are invisible and the obsessions are unspeakable. 

For All I Know will premiere on YouTube and Healthline.com October 13th, 2025 at 12 PM EST. It's one attempt to change the conversation — to show what actually happens in that impossible-to-film space between thoughts and self. Most importantly, it’s a story about a mother-daughter relationship, and the fight to keep that relationship alive. 

1. Hezel, D. M., Rose, S. V., & Simpson, H. B. (2022). Delay to diagnosis in OCD. Journal of Obsessive-Compulsive and Related Disorders, 32, 100709.