Obsessive, compulsive disorder is a brutal mental illness which affects a very small part of the population. In the US, about 1.1% of the people have it and it is evenly split between males and females. Over 2.2 million individuals are afflicted. It is so simple to understand but brutally hard to deal with.
The entire condition is based on thoughts. Just thoughts. So think different thoughts you say and you are cured.?
Ha-ha !!
No. No. No.
Don't forget, just because you resolve one OCD symptom you do not get rid of the entire disorder. So, the trick is to learn how to deal with your OCD by not acting out in all the goofy ways you do now. Acting out does not work.
I am now having an urge to call someone on the phone which would likely create a problem. At minimum, it would start an OCD cycle where I would have to start calling and calling trying to get my problem with this person resolved.
The problem is I have no real problem with him. The problem is with my thoughts.
That is reassuring and gives me relief.
I also know I am not going to create a problem with the crazy thought that I can end this perceived problem with a phone call. Maybe I could and maybe I couldn't. It doesn't matter.
Another OCD problem would soon follow. There is relief in that knowledge. I am sick
So, I chose to write about this. Maybe it will help someone else. It is certainly helping me. My desire to call this guy has diminished.
Working out, talking, meditation, reading are all answers to coping with OCD.
Acting out does not work. I have the scars to prove it.
The stove might still be turned on or the lady did not respond right to your apology or or or.
An external fix does not last.
In people with OCD thoughts get stuck in their head and most sufferers do not know how to deal with the torment.
Ironically, the answer to how to deal with OCD is to not deal with it!!
It is just an urge. It will decrease and go away if it is not fed, When you do not act on it than it starves.
But, and it is a big but, OCD urges are so overwhelming and intense that it is almost impossible to deal with them without knowledge of how to.
Just to clarify, it is obsessive compulsive disorder (OCD) whether it is to wash your hands again and again, check the lights. check that pimple again, touch your nose, count to ten, arrange your desk. check your toes. take a shower, ad to your hoarding collection, or perform any compulsion you feel an urgency to perform over and over. Again and again is the key word.
We are talking about checking for hours on end. We are talking about being soaked in sweat from anxiety when an OCD episode occurs. It can last for hours, days, weeks, months, or years.
Fear of harming yourself or another, fear of saying or doing something embarrassing or dangerous, or fear of anything or anybody in an abnormal way, needing constant reassurance that something was done right, and on and on are common obsessions.
When any thought consumes ones mind in a perpetual, non stop, disabling way it is usually from (OCD) obsessive compulsive disorder.
That means being so focused or consumed by a thought or urge that it owns you.
It can be about what you are going to eat three days from now or being afraid you will throw the dog down the steps.
I had an obsession about tin foil for years. I was afraid to bite down on the foil because I remembered it once hurt my teeth. Tin foil kept me in bed for days being depressed and not wanting to see any tin foil. Even after I had bit down on the foil and felt no pain I still, to this day, avoid chewing anything with tin foil on it.
I had another obsession when I was 25 years old. I thought I had prostate cancer. No matter how many times the Dr. checked me and told me nothing was wrong with my prostate I still demanded to be put in the hospital for a torturous test. The Dr, came in my room afterward and said
“You are fine. See a psychiatrist."
I am 72 now and I am not fine.
But, I am much better.
