#obsessive compulsive disorder
OCD has you doing the weirdest things. I have this contamination obsession with certain words. There are certain ordinary, everyday words that are Bad and Unclean and I cannot say, write, or even think them. One of those words is a synonym for scent, so my friend was asking me what my favorite scent was but she used the Unclean word. I wasn’t confident that I could dance my way around the word while still keeping the conversation going so I just… lied to her and said my nose didn’t work properly. I had to live in this lie for a while where I had to keep pretending that I didn’t have that sense. It came up more often than you’d think. Just a really weird thing to do, like what even was that? And I still have that obsession so I’m more than willing to do that again if necessary.
Mapping the consequences of our decisions in the brain
Scientists at the University of Glasgow have shed light on how our brain helps us to make decisions.
Imagine picking wild berries in a forest, when suddenly a swarm of bees flies out from behind a bush. In a split second, your motor system has already reacted to flee the swarm. This is the automatic response - acting before thinking - which helps you to avoid impending doom.
At the same time a separate, more thought-out process of learning happens to avoid reckless berry picking in the future.
To understand the way this happens, Dr Philiastides’ team at Glasgow have developed a new way to study brain activity in real-time.
This method involves using two pieces of equipment simultaneously: an EEG machine which records when brain activity took place and a functional MRI scan to reveal where it occurred.
To successfully record from both pieces of equipment at the same time, the team were able to remove the ‘noise’ introduced by the MR scanner on the EEG - a shortcoming that previously made this problematic.
The team hope that this pioneering technique will offer neurological insights into mental disorders associated with decision making such as obsessive-compulsive disorder and post-traumatic stress disorder.
Image credits: Dr Marios Philiastides, University of Glasgow
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Me: What are your thoughts on oatmeal raisin cookies and their safety?
Husband: Why is that even a question
Me: In about 2008, I gave up junk food for Lent and then I broke it by eating an oatmeal raisin cookie. So I havent eaten one since because Im pretty sure that made them cause cancer. But I’m really craving one.
Husband: Lent? You’re not Catholic?
Me: So?
Husband: And that’s not how any of this works..
Me: Well, it’s like a punishment, you see. I broke Lent with the cookie so now-
Husband: COOKIES CANT CAUSE CANCER
Other people’s brains: greeeeeenn, greeeeen, greeeen, gradual transition, whiiittteeee
My brain: PINK, BLUE, RED, GREENGREEN, blue, red, purple?, pink?, whiteyellowpinkredorange
OCD: “I see you’re having a nice day. That’s good. I’m happy for you. Did you know the color yellow causes cancer? As does chicken. And wearing your new sweater.”
Me: wearing new sweater with yellow stripes, mouth open exposing chicken sandwich.
OCD: “Enjoy.”
It’s not hoarding if all your shit is awesome.
Judd Appatow
Hi, my name is still OCD
History is all you left me by Adam Silvera
★★★★★
Review:http://goo.gl/gE7YWF
“I think I need to go back to the start, where we were two boys bonding over jigsaw puzzles and falling in love”
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ocd makes shit like having an internship or a job such a nightmare. im making sure to be professional, nice, engaged, etc, and my brain is just like “imagine.. imagine if you just fucking threw a rock at this person. imagine if they had a heart attack and died. imagine if you said this absolutely horrible insult.” and.. bruh
hello!!@igoteyelinerinmyeye is doing a documentary project to educate people on OCD, and they need people from california/los angeles with OCD who are willing to be interviewed or to send in a video of them showing what their life is like with OCD. it can be done anonymously too.
other notes from them:
Must either have/had OCD or know/known someone with OCD.
In person interviews (ONLY IF YOU ARE IN LOS ANGELES OR ANYWHERE ELSE IN CALIFORNIA).
Other ways you can share your experience without being personally interviewed because you can’t or don’t want to:
•submitting a voice recording sharing your experience
•writing down your experience
If you are comfortable with showing your identity but can’t be interviewed for whatever reason like location, disability, etc. You can submit a recording of yourself sharing what your experience with having or knowing someone with OCD has been like.
THE PURPOSE OF THESE INTERVIEWS IS TO BETTER EDUCATE THE PUBLIC OF WHAT OCD IS REALLY LIKE.
contact them if you would like to do this!
my therapist: you have disorders:
me: disorder? i barely know her! by “her” i mean me. who is she? i don’t really know myself haha! i know that was a weird segue but there is an inextricable bond between my mental illnesses and my struggle to form and understand my identity. how much of my identity is informed by my mental illnesses? is it healthy to use my astrological chart as a way to keep track of my character traits because i have trouble actually identifying things about myself? how much of the way my mental illnesses work against me is a result of societal influence? have you read the communist manifesto by chance?
my therapist:
While cleaning out my room I found a paper that my therapist gave me some time ago to deal with obsessive and intrusive thoughts. Sorry the paper is a little crinkled and stained, but I figured I’d post it in hopes that it will help someone like it helped me.
Here it is again with text for anyone who can’t see the picture
- That thought isn’t helpful right now.
- Now is not the time to think about it. I can think about it later.
- This is irrational. I’m going to let it go.
- I won’t argue with an irrational thought.
- This is not an emergency. I can slow down and think clearly about what I need.
- This feels threatening and urgent, but it really isn’t.
- I don’t have to be perfect to be OK.
- I don’t have to figure out this question. The best thing to do is just drop it.
- It’s OK to make mistakes.
- I already know from my past experiences that these fears are irrational.
- I have to take risks in order to be free. I’m willing to take this risk.
- It’s OK that I just had that thought/image, and it doesn’t mean anything. I don’t have to pay attention to it.
- I’m ready to move on now.
- I can handle being wrong.
- I don’t have to suffer like this. I deserve to feel comfortable.
- That’s not my responsibility.
- That’s not my problem.
- I’ve done the best I can.
- It’s good practice to let go of this worry. I want to practice.
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Imagine your mind as a computer, and what is essentially you is on the monitor in front of you. You can access your data/memories, programmes/functions and even go into sleep.
Now imagine thinking as browsing the internet. You open your web browser and start surfing, you have all the right security programmes to stop pop-ups and viruses that you may come across.
People with OCD do not have all these programmes. People with OCD get pop up after pop up, they fill the monitor and leave you unable to access anything else on your computer, the virus renders you useless, only able to perform the same few tasks, restarting yourself over and over again, all because you are missing the security programme people without OCD all have and take for granted.
That is what OCD is like.
