101–110 of 141 posts
I didn't quite realize it, but how many people suffering from OCD are motivated by "something horrible" happening? Like I wonder how many people have compulsions that aren't motivated by something bad happen?
I’m using a throwaway account and trying to keep personal details sparse to keep this as anonymous as possible. Also, despite my frustration with the situation, I’ll attempt to be as neutral as possible. My significant other was always “germ conscious”; clean hands, no shoes in the house, etc. Nothing over the top or alarming. However, over the years, there have been huge shifts in behavior and routine in regards to…
Thankfully, it's not like your partner's. We share a car now, and there's just one basket in the trunk for the 'dirty' hospital shoes. She tries to change out of work clothes as soon as getting home and throws them in the laundry. Reasonable precaution, that's fine. She's more squeamish than I am about touching raw meat. But those are all preferences, and it's well under control. I don't think it's OCD related at all, it's just precaution.
In your case, it sounds like your SO has crippling OCD that's being fed/reinforced by rationality. Can you have some kind of intervention where other people who are impacted by this behavior are the loudest voices in the room? It's not good for her, it's not good for you, it's not good for your relationship, and it's not good for your child.
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Do you commute a long way? Is it possible that it's just your mind keeping busy/creative while you commute? I find my mind playing out similar doomsday scenarios and solutions when I'm doing something repetitive for longer periods of time.
It's about a 10 minute drive to work, 15 on my bicycle :) This is more when on the coast for vacation or when traveling between cities in the valley like on weekends. That said I know what you mean - I do that when I'm biking with traffic, thinking about what people MIGHT do to cut me off, etc. as opposed to what's actually happening.
That's probably very useful. Keeps you out of trouble.
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Wouldn't it make sense if all humans were along a continuum (possibly non-linear) with regards to OCD symptoms? Pick a point somewhere on that continuum; "normal" to the left, "OCD" to the right.
While this is somewhat true, it can easily lead to the idea that mental health problems aren't serious because they are just further along a scale than me. We all have kidneys that don't work perfectly, so we are all on a continuum of kidney failure, however you'd describe some people as having kidney failure and others not, only a few people would be 'borderline'. I appreciate that may not have been what you meant,…
How differently should we treat "sick" people? Do they milk their diagnoses extra sympathy as alluded to by stephengillie elsethread? Honestly I don't care too much about that. A much bigger concern is that labeling people "sick" justifies the creation of a self-sustaining industry dedicated to their "treatment". Even if nearly all of the researchers and physicians are well-meaning (which I believe), we need to be skeptical.
Most of all I resist the othering of the "mentally ill". What we regard as "normal" entails quite a range of irrational and strange behavior. I personally believe the best model is that nobody's "normal", yet medical intervention is rarely justified and ostracism is never justified.
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this might be medically unadvisable, but i have found that education goes a long way towards disarming the notion that anything can ever really be clean if it is in your house. i helped one of my friends be slightly less obsessed with cleanliness this way. let's say you bleach down a perfectly smooth countertop in your kitchen. okay, it's clean, there's no bacteria there. for about two seconds. probably less, in real…
Previously on HN: 800 million viruses fall onto every square meter of Earth every day. They kill 20% of bacterial life every day. [0] [0] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=16839636
I've OCD and i was on a verge of complete failure. Untill a friend recommended me to try Ashwgandha (Withania somnifera) After that my life completely changed positively. I've lost my anxiety since then. I usually take it with a glass of milk. Now, I've very less stress.
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…
Would it help if you had a webcam pointed at the door so you could remotely verify it's closed and locked? Or do you need some the actual feeling of the door being closed to end the fixation?
Also, as jcranendonk pointed out in a separate reply to your comment, reinforcing the behavior does more harm than good in the long run. In my case, I've been able to reduce some of the mental strain by following CBT principles in a therapy session and also on my own; I can't comment on ERP personally, but I do know it's shown widespread promise in the literature. My previous therapist incorporated some of its techniques into our sessions as well, but was principally following CBT practice.
This scene played out almost every night, except I learned to be quiet so no one would know I couldn’t open the door because of a mysterious feeling that if I didn’t do it “right” something horrible would happen. I didn't quite realize it, but how many people suffering from OCD are motivated by "something horrible" happening? Like I wonder how many people have compulsions that aren't motivated by something bad happen…
> Like I wonder how many people have compulsions that aren't motivated by something bad happen?
I'm one. I have compulsions, and none of the obsessions involve me being certain of impending death if they aren't carried out just so.
For me, it's an extremely intense feeling of wrongness. Not like morality; just that there exists some "right" way to do certain things, and doing it any other way is somehow inherently wrong or incorrect. Why would I willingly do something the wrong way?
It makes my skin crawl if I do it wrong. Like there's a physical sensation of "You've screwed up; go back and do it again until you do it right." My stomach drops and I feel that one shiver you get when you're just a bit too cold.
Of course, I'm never compelled to do useful things the right way. My go-to example is from a few years ago. I eat cereal a lot, and historically have mostly always eaten Smart Start and Raisin Nut Bran. Maybe four years ago, I branched out and got some Cinnamon Life for the first time since I was a kid. I ate the bowl of cereal and all was well. Then I tried to put the box back on the shelf... and I couldn't. It was wrong. The box was printed wrong, and I didn't know what to do. You know how there's those interleaving flaps on the top? I like to put my boxes on the shelf such that the flap the goes on top is on the left and the nutrition information faces out (that way I can pick it up with my right hand and easily open the box and pour into the bowl — any other way of doing it would be wrong, somehow). But the Life box was printed such that the flaps and the nutrition information were at odds. I had to make a choice: either face out the nutrition information and have the flaps wrong, or put the flaps correctly and have the wrong side of the box face outwards.
I debated the best compromise for some thirty minutes, until my roommate came home and asked why I wasn't in class. I hastily shoved the box on the shelf (flaps correct, nutrition information be damned) and made some excuse about having missed my alarm. I was completely preoccupied with my decision for the rest of the day, and haven't bought Life since because I can't deal with the stomach-sinking feeling of having done something wrong.
I'm one of the "chronic checker" types. I used to be really bad about checking and rechecking door locks, particularly, but also the fridge and the garage. If I check absentmindedly and without intention, I'll have to do it all over again. What really helped me get out the door in the morning, and still does, is actually to video myself doing it. When I got a Palm Zire 72, for the first time I could actually leave wi…
OMG I too am a "chronic checker". When my first son was born and my OCD was aggravated by exhaustion, and living in a relatively unsafe part of baltimore, I would have these 10 "check loops". I just couldn't be 100% certain the door was locked. Even at the time some part of me realized the absurdity of it.
You've independently discovered a key diagnostic factor in OCD. :) What distinguishes OCD from, say, obsessive-compulsive personality disorder, is that the sufferer of plain ol' obsessive compulsive disorder knows full well the absurdity of their condition. She understands that doing 12 jumping jacks before leaving the house won't stop it from burning down, but the overwhelming "why not be safe?" urge compels her to do it just in case.
This has led to many a burned hand throughout my youth as I would reach out and touch a hot stove or incandescent light bulb to make sure they were really hot like they should be.