To free yourself from OCD, become less human and more cat 🐈‍⬛

Copyright 2024 OCD-Free

Cats can be big weirdos. But it is unlikely that they suffer from OCD. I assert this because OCD is a tool for the ego to protect itself. And what is the ego? The false self. The fragile self that needs protection. The self wrapped in fear and judgement.

I have noticed something very non-human about my two cats. And I’m not talking about their cute trilling sounds or their ability to jump ten times their height to get to a shelf so they can swat at a plant. My cats love to go on human tours around the house. I carry them around so they can see things from on high. I know they love it because their tails twitch and they purr. If I carry one cat around, the other will follow and watch. But the cat on the ground won’t try to get up to my arms or meow in a jealous rage. When the first cat is done with the tour, I pick the other one up for a ride because I figure that’s only fair. If they were human kids, they’d want that. But never has the cat left on the floor done the equivalent of shouting “Me! Me! Take meeeee!”

Here’s another example: I feed them from two dishes because I’m a human and I wouldn’t just pour one bowl of cereal for two children and let them at it–there would be fights. But the cats don’t care. When one sticks her head in the bowl the other is eating from, the other cat just changes bowls or pulls back and lets her eat. The same thing happens when they play: I throw their favorite toy, a crumpled paper ball, and they lunge after it. One cat gets it and the other doesn’t take it away; he just watches her play with it.

It’s as if my cats had a much vaguer sense of “other” than I do. It’s as if my cats see themselves as basically two parts of one cat. They love each other: they play, groom, sleep and eat together. But even when they play fight, they never ever get mad and hold a grudge against the other cat. That’s because there really isn’t an “other” cat. Their egos are not making as solid a case for duality as mine. They don’t even have names for each other–I imposed names on them because I see them as different things that need their own names. So very human of me.

To free yourself from OCD, become less human and more cat.

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