The terrible 'what if': how OCD makes every day a matter of life or death

I'm appreciative of somebody who also has OCD writing an article like this detailing how the disorder isn't at all like the stereotype of a neat freak. What's funny is, I myself am actually a terribly messy person with books and papers always strewn about (among clothes not quite in the hamper, &c).

What's interesting to me from a personal history viewpoint is that one of my earliest compulsions also centered around door knobs. However, in my case I had to cover the whole surface area of the knob (hah!) with my hand and yank it shut multiple times (the exact number was arbitrary; merely whatever "felt" right) until I was sufficiently satisfied that the damn door was indeed closed. I still do this when leaving my apartment.

Hell, reading this article and writing this comment has "caused" (ie, compelled me to) do some of my own compulsions multiple times already because just thinking about doing them means I need to. Once I get into my head that I "have" to do X, Y, or Z then it's much harder to ignore than if the trigger (or what have you) came up in everyday life. I hope you HNers learned something so me sitting here in my underpants counting powers of 2 and repeatedly moving my head back and forth like a confused pigeon wasn't totally for naught! :)

EDIT: For those more curious about this topic (all dozen of you) I wrote a short piece on my blog attempting to better illustrate the painful bizarrity of OCD through the vehicle of a fictional dialectic: https://salt.mattwie.se/essays/all-mad.html

Thanks for sharing. The complexities of the human brain will never cease to amaze me. There should be a way, in all this neuronal maze, to escape those compulsions, but I bet it's really well hidden.

Well, one way out is behavioral therapy.

Obsessive compulsive disorder is a form of anxiety disorder. You are afraid of something (sickness, death, loosing control) - then you get obsessive about it and then you do some compulsive action to mentally ease that thought/anxiety.

But now you have "learned" to behave in a certain way to feel better. And you are weighting the triggering thought as more important by giving that much attention to it. This is resulting in a self-enforcing feedback loop in the end.

Behavioral therapy is a way to "unlearn" this behavior. Mostly by working against the initial anxiety. If you are unconcerned/neutral/bored of something, you cannot gain that much obsessive/compulsive momentum.

I seriously wonder if OCD could be is created because of our lifestyle in society. Yesterday I went to a coffeeshop (creamery in SF) and there was this crazy bathroom where I had to scan a QR code to get in. The door automatically opened, I walked in, and it automatically closed behind me. When I washed my hands, the water faucet detects motion and it has a built in air dryer as well. When I'm done, I pushed a button and the door automatically opened.

Afterwards, I thought about why such a crazy bathroom was built and I realized that my entire bathroom could be done without me touching anything so I could keep myself clean. It made me think about all the germs in every bathroom door handle and all the hands touching it. If I didn't consciously stop myself, I could see myself becoming slight OCD.

At the same time, I wonder if someone who practiced true altruism would ever develop OCD. If I'm only focused on helping others without thinking about myself, would it be easier to let things go?

Upvoted not because I like the idea of giving (unsolicited and shotgun) medical advice on HN, but because it might be interesting hearing from other commenters about what has worked for them and what hasn't.