By Davis McClure

As Halloween approaches, the spooky playlists make their rounds around cafes, house parties and retail stores.

One track in particular has been making its way around since it was released in 1972. Stevie Wonder’s “Superstition” was written as a warning about subscribing to superstitious practices.

“When you believe in things that you don’t understand, then you suffer, superstition ain’t the way,” Wonder sings.

While some avoid cracks in the sidewalk, make wishes at 11:11 or knock on wood for fun, others are convinced something bad will come from not obliging.

Psychologists call this magical thinking, the belief that a thought or ritual can change what happens in the world. It shows up in most people at some point. But, for those with Obsessive Compulsive Disorder, it stops being a passing thought and becomes a rule the brain will not let go of.

Alongside the spooky holiday, October is also National OCD Awareness Month. The month is “a time dedicated to raising awareness, fighting stigma, and uplifting everyone living with OCD,” according to NOCD.

Ava Dunn, a University of Arkansas sophomore with OCD, said she hears her peers misuse the term frequently.

“People always misuse the term to talk about being organized,” Dunn said.

Dunn is not an organized person. The closest thing to organization in her life is what is often called “just right” OCD, the feeling that something must be done a specific number of times or in a specific way to prevent something bad from happening.

“I have to stop the microwave before it beeps,” Dunn said. “I used to have to double and triple check that my pets were alive while they slept.”

Dunn said that people often mistake being organized as having OCD.

“That is not what the disorder actually is, it’s mainly about the thought patterns that are driving the impulses and compulsions,” Dunn said. “It is a battle to be in the loop of rumination and thought spirals. They are super heavy and strong.”

Dunn said she has kept some of the hardest thoughts to herself.

“Some of the thoughts are so difficult that I haven’t even shared them with some of my closest friends and family because it feels like if I share it that they’ll think it’s part of me,” Dunn said.

“I do knock on wood, but at this point, I don’t care if it’s wood or not,” Dunn said. “I have to knock on something, or else everything bad will happen.”

Most superstitions are social. They get passed around, and people share them without thinking much about where they came from. Dunn said that is exactly how some of hers started. Splitting the pole was something her friends did, and it stuck.

“It stayed in my mind and kind of looped,” Dunn said. “So anytime I’m with someone, I’m like, we can’t do this. Something bad is going to happen to us specifically.”

The 11:11 habit works the same way. Dunn remembers learning it as a lucky moment, a time to make a wish, and taking it seriously almost immediately.

“I was like, okay, obviously I’m going to be wishing like my life depends on it,” Dunn said.

That is where the two overlap. A superstition is a habit you can choose to keep or drop. With OCD, the habit keeps you. The ritual is no longer a nod to luck anymore. It is something that has to be done, and the cost of skipping it is not bad luck but the seeming certainty that something terrible will follow.

The thoughts are not a reflection of who she is, Dunn said. That is the part she said people miss most. Dunn noted that people often misuse the terms “impulsive” and “Intrusive” thoughts.

“Impulsive is ‘I’m just going to do this’. Intrusive is, ‘I don’t want this here.’ I don’t want to do this, but it’s taking over my entire mind,” Dunn said. “The thoughts that you have are not a direct reflection of you.”

For those with OCD seeking treatment, the U of A Psychological Clinic treats anxiety and OCD in teens and adults. It is open to the Northwest Arkansas community as well as people at the university.

The U of A Counseling and Psychological Services (CAPS) is also a resource and has 24-hour emergency mental health services for students, faculty and staff.

“It affects us way more than they understand,” Dunn said. “If people just came from a place of openness and understanding, and empathy, that would go a much longer way.”