ocd in pop culture (a rant about agt)

i like to watch america's got talent with my family, and i think it's great that howie is there because that gives ocd a spotlight in a sense. he's open about having ocd, and it's just a relief seeing someone so beloved and famous (and funny) that has this same disorder. but one thing that bothers me so much is that people make a joke of it so often on there. examples: - a guy went on to get the world record for most fist bumps in a minute, and he made howie stand there as the one being fist bumped. specifically BECAUSE it's well known that he hates having his hands touched due to his ocd - people insisting on shaking his hand or high fiving him - he's often the judge that's brought up as the guest on stage when the act involves direct contact skin to skin, and when he tries to say no, everyone pressures him they make a big joke of this and laugh at him for a very real very serious disorder and have done this for years. i know that he's choosing to stay on the show etc and he could just leave, but it's still incredibly rude and harmful. it clearly causes him distress and makes a mockery of ocd. and yes he's a celebrity and there's only so much sympathy to spare for celebrities, but i think it's totally fair to feel empathy for him and be bothered by it. no matter how famous you are, this disorder is a beast, and this is, in my opinion, completely unacceptable. the other judges and people involved with the show should be standing up for him, not pressuring him to become the butt of the joke just because "germaphobia = funny" and he's a comedian and i'm not just asserting based on personal opinion that he has ocd or playing armchair psychologist— he has talked about it and directly stated that he has it and has even done ocd awareness ads. it is a known fact that he has ocd. this disorder is no joke, and i'm tired of it being treated like one. contamination ocd is not and has never been funny. yes, we can laugh at our own experiences, but other people should never be laughing at someone FOR having a clinically recognized disorder or their symptoms. laugh WITH, not AT, people who are struggling. i thought this was a simple concept everyone was taught i still enjoy the show, but i immediately dislike any acts that pull that move when they absolutely didn't have to and could've called up any other judge or the host terry crews (terry almost certainly would've been enthusiastic about the fist bumps, for example. it was completely unnecessary to pick on the one person that hates hand to hand contact). no matter how interesting their act may be (which it usually isn't— typically it's a gimmicky act that doesn’t make it past the first round), i root against them on principle this was meant to be a small rant, but it just gets me so heated. "germaphobes" (people with contamination ocd) have been treated as a joke for basically my whole life and definitely longer than that, as well as "neat freaks" which are (in my experience) usually also people with some kind of ocd like perfectionism ocd. it's just ridiculous. it's so unnecessarily cruel and needed to stop before it even started. it should never have been treated as acceptable. in howie's case, even the other judges pick on him for it sometimes i'll call it what it is. it's ableism. and i'm tired of it