I can’t tell you how I feel when someone famous and/or someone I admire announces they have OCD. It’s such a unique type of hell. It’s always good to know you’re not alone, but it’s a whole other level of comfort when someone who seems “bigger than life” suffers from the same thing.
It’s yet a whole other level when it’s someone from Japan, considering how incredibly conservative Japanese society is compared to the west, and considering how getting help for illness is so deeply frowned upon, especially when that illness can be classified as “mental”.
It’s yet a whole OTHER level when it’s someone from MORNING MUSUME.
And this is SAYUMI MICHISHIGE we’re talking about here. Queen Sayu! The one & only.
Sayumi Michishige has gone public with her struggles with OCD.
Her OCD is so bad that she needs to take a break from the public eye to deal with it.
As if I didn’t love & adore her & flat-out obsess over her enough already, now there’s this?
Not only am I so proud of her for being public about this, but now I feel, like, a special kind “bond” with her, if that makes sense?
I swear I don’t mean that in a creepy way! Hopefully, what I'm trying to say is clear--knowing someone has gone through the same type of struggles as you makes you feel more of "kinship" with that person, even though you don't know them personally, and it's just someone in the public eye whom you admire from afar.
It’s horrible, though, some of the comments poor Sayumi has been getting on socials--as you might imagine. There are men out there who have been saying that she just needs a man in her life to cure the OCD. Misogyny & grossness aside (is it possible to put those things aside?), I don’t know how ignorant you have to be to not realize that getting a partner will most likely make the OCD much worse, not the other way around.
I mean, it’s OK to not know things, but it’s definitely not OK to use your ignorance to spread hateful, incredibly gross sexist comments.
It’s definitely not OK to think mental illness can be cured by having a sexual partner.
“This woman needs a man in her life to cure her COVID!”
“If she actually got a boyfriend, her IBS would be cured.”
That’s about how much sense that makes. Except with the added caveat that dating or being in a relationship will likely exacerbate OCD!
(Not to mention…I believe (or rather assume) that Sayumi is gay. I think she’d prefer a girlfriend or wife, not a boyfriend. But that’s a whole other topic for another time. )
