Understanding OCD is hard for those of us without clinical anxiety. \u00a0To help you understand what it’s like to have OCD, reflect back on the childhood rhyme, \u201cIf you step on a crack, then you\u2019ll break your mother\u2019s back\u201d.\u00a0 How many of us twisted, teetered, and contorted as we hop-stepped along the sidewalk as kids; with that little saying running around in our head?\u00a0 Most of us have played some version of this silly little game.\u00a0 We drove our mothers crazy as we slowly made our way along the path\/mall\/grocery store when they were in a hurry.\u00a0 Now, imagine for a moment that you wake up one day and find that it really is true\u2026 If you (and only you) were to actually step on a crack, you would, without a doubt, cause some sort of cosmic rift in the universe and your mother would fall and break her back.\u00a0 Literally break her back.\u00a0 And it is preventable if you perfectly avoid every single crack.\u00a0Forever.<\/p>\n
What would life look like upon waking up that morning?\u00a0 How long would it take you to make your way across the tile in your bathroom? Kitchen? \u00a0Down the bricked path leading from your front door to your driveway?\u00a0 How much longer would it take you to get through a normal day\u2019s routine?\u00a0 Would you ever stop watching your feet?\u00a0 How exhausted would you be by the end of that first day?\u00a0 Would it even be worth leaving the house the next day?<\/p>\n
This is what life is like for someone with OCD.\u00a0 They have come to believe that their rituals and routines are exactly that vital\u2026 that if they somehow fail\/mess up performing the routine, something terrible and catastrophic could\/would happen.\u00a0 It could mean something bad will happen to someone they love, they will lose someone or something important to them, they will even cause something as catastrophic as a deadly plane crash, tsunami, or earthquake.\u00a0 \u00a0People with OCD do not always know what the \u201cbad thing\u201d will be exactly, but they have the haunting, ominous feeling that it will happen.\u00a0 And it will be All Their Fault<\/span>.<\/p>\n Those who suffer from OCD often report a history of anxiety<\/a> and feelings or fears of being out of control.\u00a0 Some have experienced traumatic events such as the death of a loved one, car accident, or sexual trauma<\/a> which caused the feelings of uncertainty and lack of control.\u00a0 They attempt to reduce the anxiety by finding something they can control\u2026 such as rituals and routines.\u00a0 Logically, they know that they are not actually managing the world through hand washing and turning off lights.\u00a0 The feelings of control they have through performing their rituals provides a false sense of safety and security they are reluctant to give up.<\/p>\n When working with clients with OCD, simply focusing on extinguishing the rituals and routines will not be enough to bring long-term relief.\u00a0 The source of the anxiety and fear of losing control must be explored.\u00a0 As the individual learns better ways to manage anxiety and experiences<\/a> an increase in emotional tolerance, the need to perform rituals will decrease.\u00a0 They will be able to challenge the obsessive thoughts and learn to replace them with rational thoughts.<\/p>\n Over the last few weeks, I have watched the UK Wildcats make their way in the NCAA basketball tournament.\u00a0 I am a huge fan of UK basketball, stemming from my graduate school days.\u00a0 The final 4 game was quite a nail-biter.\u00a0 There were 15 seconds left in the game, and UK was down by 2 points.\u00a0 The player raced down the court to take what was about to be the game-winning 3-point shot.\u00a0 I was aware that I was crossing my fingers (on both hands) and muttering \u201cc\u2019mon, c\u2019mon, c\u2019mon\u201d with increasing volume as the player charged down the court.\u00a0 Although I know this had no actual bearing on the outcome<\/a> of the game, I couldn\u2019t resist my superstitious little gesture.\u00a0 I\u2019ve done it, you\u2019ve done it.\u00a0 Who hasn\u2019t, at some point in time, performed a similar little motion?\u00a0 For our friends with OCD, it is more than a superstitious gesture or simple magical thinking<\/a>.\u00a0 If we can think of the times when we have performed similar gestures (on a smaller scale) and then imagine what it would be like if I believed the action actually did matter; we will be able to have some empathy for what they are going through and show them the love and support they need to confront the deeper fears, anxiety or trauma that is the root of their OCD.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Understanding OCD is hard for those of us without clinical anxiety. \u00a0To help you understand what it’s like to have OCD, reflect back on the childhood rhyme, \u201cIf you step …<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":33,"featured_media":6293,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[99],"tags":[37,242,243],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newhavenrtc.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2200"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newhavenrtc.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newhavenrtc.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newhavenrtc.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/33"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newhavenrtc.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2200"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.newhavenrtc.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2200\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":18330,"href":"https:\/\/www.newhavenrtc.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2200\/revisions\/18330"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newhavenrtc.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/6293"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newhavenrtc.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2200"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newhavenrtc.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2200"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newhavenrtc.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2200"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}