Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (OCD)
Its not just being tidy or a perfectionist, those words do not describe how it can be to have to switch the light on and off 20 times before going to sleep.
People have become careless in remarking ‘Oh that’s just my OCD’, most people have absolutely no idea how tortuous it can be to suffer; and I mean suffer with OCD which at its worst can occupy hours each day in doing and redoing things to keep yourself or the ones you love safe.
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OCD is a form of extreme anxiety and is usually accompanied by depression, often it raises its ugly head in childhood or early teens at a point when your life was out of control and you desperately needed to feel safe. You performed some action that at that time you believed would help and it became a ritual, a compulsion.
The men in white coats who were putting together a list of disorders back in the day lumped together Obsessive Disorder with Compulsive disorder, whilst yes; the Compulsive disorder is Obsessive but, the Obsessive disorder is not compulsive but again it is to keep you safe, to exert control.
But, wherever you fall, it is a form of anxiety and it needs help and it can be helped, we can tap into your childhood to find the origin of this disorder which begins to make sense of it or, you can see a counsellor who specialises in Exposure Therapy to help you on the journey.
Pure ‘O’ a book by Rose Bretecher which has been televised shows a version of OCD which is Obsessive thinking. In this thoughts are intrusive, generally involving the worst you can think of, possibly involving porn, paedophilia, sexual abuse, murder etc. It is a form of anxiety and filled with what if’s or could I have done’s and, it can be helped, there are no lost causes!
Anxiety is a normal feeling, it has been there since we developed the ability to care what other people thought, to consider repercussions, to fear death it is what it is to be human but, sometimes it can end up ruling our lives and making those lives a misery for us and for those that love us.
