An Introduction to My Thinking

Around this time last year, we were all writing the infamous college essay. Our eyes would strain from constantly staring at a computer screen for hours on end, sometimes only to walk away frustrated and defeated from the inevitable writers block. Lucky for me, I had one of the rare "easy" topics to write a good essay about. Me, being the Einstein that I am, decided to not take advantage of this opportunity. Instead, I decided to write about ADHD and my experience with it. As it turns out, that was a horrible topic to choose. My essay turned out awfully.

The "easy" topic that I should have written about was a different disorder: Obsessive Compulsive Disorder. Many of my life's turning points have involved OCD, so everything about it screams "College essay! College essay!" But, since I didn't write about it then, I am going to write about it now. Welcome to my blog, where I'll be writing about my experience with OCD. 

To begin, I'd like to provide you with some foundational knowledge on OCD, if you don't already have it: what it is and how it affects someone. 

The problems of OCD begin when a victim has disturbing thoughts enter their head. Surprisingly, most people have disturbing thoughts. For example, you might be meeting someone for the first time, giving them a handshake, and suddenly you think: "This person must have AIDS on their hand!" This is obviously a ridiculous thought, but nonetheless, thoughts like this often show up uninvited. Someone without OCD will immediately be able to dismiss the thought. Someone with OCD, however, may come to believe this ridiculous thought (This sentence oversimplifies what actually goes on, but this explanation will have to do for now). 

As soon as they believe the thought, they will usually perform a ritual to prevent the horrible outcome from happening- in this instance, they may wash their hands dozens of times to minimize their perceived chance of getting AIDS from a handshake. This will cause them great stress, not only because they are worried about contracting a disease, but also because they do recognize that their behavior and thought processes are unreasonable yet there is little that they can do to stop themselves.

This is simply one example of OCD. There are many others, including but not limited to: the fear of being a pedophile, fear of being a murderer and superstition (i.e. actually fearing that stepping on a crack will break your mother's back). Each type of the disorder can have differing severity, and differing obstacles that get in the way of daily life. If, for instance, someone always fears that they left their oven on, they might be a couple hours late to work due to them compulsively checking the oven.

Hopefully, you have a better grasp of what OCD its effects. On my next post, I will give an overview of my particular type of OCD, and how misconceptions about it delayed my recovery process.

Image Credit: Doorway Arizona