Obsessions Part One
The first letter in OCD stands for obsession. It is the first step in our cycle that leads us to struggle with anxiety and forcing us to perform compulsions to gain relief. Obsessions can be anything and come in many different forms - intrusive thoughts, ideas, memories, or images. So, it is mostly anything that can filter through your head, even normal thoughts which OCD latches onto and gives a misinterpreted significance to that tends to be threatening.
Our Obsessions usually always make us anxious, worried, or just over-all uncomfortable. The reason for this is because of the importance we put onto the thought our Obsession form around. We will become stuck on the idea and start to add in the possibility that it could be dangerous or harmful to ourselves. Or the opposite being that it could become a danger or bring harm to lose around us - like our families or friends.
Here's a basic model of how an Obsession could develop:
Normal intrusive thought ➨ Misinterpret as significant or threatening ➨ Anxiety
So with this basic layout in mind, let's develop a bit of a better understanding of all the intricate parts that are in play for people with OCD for their Obsessions to form.
One of the most ironic and funny facts about how our Obsessions form is that it is from thoughts - yes intrusive thoughts - and yet everybody else also deals with this too. A myth surrounding this is that it is bad to have bad thoughts even though everyone will have them throughout a day. We are human and are able to think about anything we want because they are private from others unless we decide to share. It does not mean we will act on these thoughts or that they will come true. The difference for us is we become stuck on these thoughts - be it a bad thought or just a random thought - and our bodies will then react as if impending doom is lurking right around the corner. Our brains are always going and will filter through many bizarre or senseless scenarios - even when we are sleeping.
The issue that we face is that it seems that our brains are wired to be in hyper-analyze mode - always looking for something that has even the slightest possibility to become a threat right now or in the future. It's really just an intolerance to uncertainty and lack of control that affects us and makes the obsessions to occur. For there is nothing, absolutely nothing that is 100% safe or assured. Thus, even if we could predict what will become an obsession for those of us who suffer, making a cure for our illness easier to acquire due to only having that one trigger is impossible. Obsession are endless, making OCD a very huge and varied illness that takes over anything in our life that it can. As long as we can think it, our OCD can claim it. So really, any thought can lead us in starting our cycle of OCD.
- A thought of spiders before bedtime
- A thought a becoming sick when someone sneezes
- A thought of crashing while in the car
- A thought of sinning because you lied
- A thought of your relationship failing
- A thought of losing all your money
- A thought that the chair is not straight
Everyone has these thoughts, yet we make them into obsessions. Based on the thoughts above we can have obsessions like...
- Contamination Obsession or Harm Obsession due to spider touching you or ingesting while sleeping
- Contamination Obsession - germs
- Harm Obsessions and it could also lead to a Checking/Repetitive Obsession
- Religious Obsession
- Relationship Obsession or Superstitious Obsession or even a Nonsensical Doubt Obsession
- Saving/Hoarding Obsession
- Symmetry Obsession
There are so many different myths surrounding how our thoughts can turn into an Obsession that to explain all in depth will have to wait. Though, here are some of the main ones that I have yet to cover: magical thinking, control your thoughts, automatically act on their thoughts, etc.
The amount of misinformation about mental health is immense and then to try to find information about a certain illness within the mental health sector is daunting. Well, you will be sifting through piles of theories, stereotypes, myths, one-sided stories and so much more. Even after being diagnosed with OCD, how many of you have been told you also suffer from other mental illness as well or could have traits of many more? Yet, I truly think that learning as much as possible is the way to make the road to mental health more accessible. If we all could try to explain what goes on in our brain to the people trying to help, who have no way to look inside our heads to fully understand, maybe one day there will be better treatments.
Until then, we plan to keep discussing and writing about things we DO understand in regards to OCD. So, if any of you need more information on something or can explain more on topics we post about, I again urge you to email it in or ask to become one of our writers.
#MentalHealthAwareness
#OCD
No comments:
Post a Comment