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Originally Posted by Millwallj In your experience, and you sound very experienced, do you find it an easy beast to get under control? I hear some shock stories of OCD'ers leading lifes of lonliness and misery and the become so distracted by their obsessions that nothing else matters.
Also, from your point of you, do you agree with my analogy in that my 'episode' was 'growing pains' - meaning that I actually feel far better than I did before I had OCD even though I have ocd today. Which nudges me toward the idea that OCD was a kind of mental clearing out, a changing of the guards if you like...
Your thoughts? |
By definition, the actions of someone with OCD are clinically impairing in one or more areas of your life, so getting that 'under control' is more of a spectrum, than an absolute. Ideally you'd like the OCD to terminate, but for realistic purposes, you hope to get it under control. For people who let their OCD take over their life, they can live a very lonely and miserable life.
I disagree with your analogy not because it isn't 'true' to a certain extent, but because there can be a better alternative. The reason you feel better about your OCD is because your rituals (which are a product of your OCD) act as a coping mechanism for your underlying faulty cognitions. If you can reformulate your cognitions, thus reducing your OCD tendancies/frequencies, which in turn would reduce your need for rituals.
I think OCD actually adds to the 'clutter' of your mind (in your terms), because it doesn't allow you to process the incoming information without first filtering them first through your faulty cognitions. If you could readjust that filter, you would probably find that there is less clutter, because you can process the information for what it is, and not what you think it is.
Here is an example: If you see a door that is slightly ajar, a person without an OCD tendancy would probably either ignore the door, or possibly go up and close the door. A person with OCD (that specifies orderliness, safety, etc) would feel the need to not only examine the door, but then close it. Some may close it 5 times, and check it each time they close it to make sure that it is in fact closed. Then they might check every other door in the building, following the same ritual.
In this example the person without the OCD tendancy would see an open door, and most likely close it.....and be done with that thought. A person with the applicable OCD tendancies would have an elaborate thought plan that revolves around why the door was open, if it can be closed properly, if other doors are open, if they can be closed, etc. It takes much more 'mental lifting' for the second person, which can 'clutter' the mind.
-pedagogue