It’s not so much about understanding empathy. It’s basically poisoning yourself, having a shit time, such a shit time that they end up being able to appreciate basic things. Not just in themselves but in others.
It’s hard to do things, it’s hard to focus, and your voice becomes louder with raw emotions and low inhibition.
So you realize how amazing people as a being are, you appreciate everything that makes life work.
However it’s fleeting, rapidly fleeting. It is a moment. You have to learn from it and detach from it.
As a dude with OCD, yep it’s a mental illness by classification. It’s something that impedes and impacts the way people function and live their day to day lives along with social difficulties due to those things.
Disorder would be a lateral word to illness, and over-explaining doesn’t categorize it but rather deliberates the meaning.
Just doesn’t sound nice to folks. Until you figure out how to manage it, it’s seen as a disease as it can be debilitating. However, lots of folks can go fine most of their life with the disorders, since it isn’t an illness unless it impacts your life.