Male bodybuilders can also suffer from it and the first recorded cases were monks and nuns, starving themselves to become holy.
The same goes for obsessive compulsive disorder although shows like My Extreme OCD Life (Channel 5) can lead us to think otherwise.
There’s a reason for that. Young people look better on the screen. Emotionally, there’s something tragic about a young person, their potential cut off by some invisible illness doesn’t hit so hard when it’s someone in their 50s.
Serin, 23 and preparing for her wedding, was a classic case.
A beautiful young woman about to embark upon a great adventure with a lovely chap and rightly proud of having conquered the worst of her OCD symptoms.
Yet there she was in the marquee, angsting about whether to use the Portaloo and how her horror of contamination would respond when sharing a bed with her husband.
“I’ll worry about it on the honeymoon,” she said with an airy wave that didn’t convince.
Yes, this was tragic but at the same time, of course, still hopeful.
Young people, like all those who bravely contributed last night, have decades to get better.
Whether that means the less hopeful stories shouldn’t feature is something producers ought to ponder.
There were other things missing last night, most strikingly a lack of insight. Revealing at close range the rituals and oppressive fears of young sufferers from teenagers at school to adults approaching their mid-20s, certainly did good.
OCD has become a buzzword, misused and overused. “I’m a bit OCD,” people say, as they rearrange a cutlery drawer. Banning words isn’t the answer but what can be done is to show people what OCD really is, what devastation it wreaks on individuals and families and how very different it is from just being a bit tidy.
Last night achieved that thoroughly with compassion. Explanation unfortunately never came along. There’s no agreement about the causes of OCD but plenty to consider.
It seemed striking that many start showing the symptoms when they’re young and that the symptoms seem to revolve around being young.
If she let her fears win, Serin would not become a woman and a wife, she would stay a girl, at home with mum and dad. Another contributor, Megan, still living at home and working with her dad, was prevented from making the break.
Her exhausting bedroom rituals also echoed the self-centred logic of the child’s mind which says bad things happen because I’ve been bad.
Is that what it’s about then, the fear of growing up? I wanted the experts to tell me.
They were thin on the ground too in Trust Me (BBC1) as bogus doctor Cath (Jodie Whittaker) handled an Edinburgh Friday night A&E shift alongside old hand Brigitte (Sharon Small).
Cath didn’t have the experience and Brigitte was drunk, the result being mayhem, spurting arteries and a pending enquiry.
The thing we love about this show is the thing we dread each week as new hairpin bends of the plot pile pressure on well-intentioned Cath.
Dishy doctor Andy (Emun Elliott) finds out her secret and says he loves her anyway.
Shiftless ex Karl (Blake Harrison) turns his life around and gets a transfer to Edinburgh. Stop the plot, we’re getting off… but not yet.
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