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External and Internal Challenges
We all have external circumstances, perhaps out of our control, that present ongoing challenges and produce stress. When we also have the internal stressor of obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD), it can make dealing with external challenges all the more difficult. Diminishing the hold the OCD has on us frees up headspace to cope with life’s problems.
You may be at a point with your OCD where you feel powerless to fight it, where it controls you like puppet. That’s how I felt most of my life. OCD decided which foot would step over the next crack in the sidewalk, which side of a light post I would walk on, where I would place my cup of coffee on a counter, which words I was allowed to say aloud.
I would regularly get stuck repeating lists of people’s name in my head for hours at a time. Sometimes I would repeat those names while walking in circles in the basement. Incidental tasks like recycling junk mail became ordeals that could last hours, as I found myself compelled to retrieve papers from the waste basket over and over to re-read words on pages. I would take the trash can out to the end of the driveway only to have to go back and touch the can over and over again. OCD ruled my every waking activity, and sometimes intruded into my dreams.
When you are so thoroughly overwhelmed with intrinsically-produced anxiety, how can you make any…
