OCD and exercise
I’ve learned firsthand how OCD can cause us to injure themselves through exercise, yoga, and even physical therapy by pushing us to work beyond our limits.… Read More OCD and exercise
Consumer OCD
You know you have OCD or an anxiety disorder when buying socks takes this long and fills you with this much distress. … Read More Consumer OCD
Confessions of an Adult with Tics
I have tics. Quite a few of them. Eye rolling, neck jerking and twisting, shoulder shrugging, diaphragm muscle tensing-and-releasing, and multiple tics in my legs and feet. My tics happen at various times and during various activities. My leg and feet tics always happen when I’m trying to exercise and when I’m trying to sleep.… Read More Confessions of an Adult with Tics
Words Matter (OCD)
How much do the words we use to describe something matter? How do you feel when someone refers to your deeply held spiritual beliefs as “religion faith?” What about when someone calls it a delusion, a fantasy, or a cult? Spiritual beliefs are a significant part of many people’s lives, and when others portray those beliefs… Read More Words Matter (OCD)
Living with Illness Anxiety OCD
Most people don’t understand the extreme anguish we feel as we try to resist the impulse to make another doctor appointment. We know we have OCD and illness anxiety and so we try to ignore those false signals from our malfunctioning brain, but doing so then makes us feel like we are essentially causing our own deaths because there is a chance that this time it is a serious disease that needs a doctor’s attention before it progresses too far and kills us.… Read More Living with Illness Anxiety OCD
Processing a Public Suicide
When I was still a college student, there were multiple occasions when I looked down a stairwell or over a balcony railing, and imagined throwing myself off and ending the unbearable suffering that PTSD, OCD, and depression were strangling me with. Why have I survived the depression and the suicidal thoughts and urges that have plagued me for over a decade, but this woman did not survive?… Read More Processing a Public Suicide
In Awe of Those with Mental Illness
I have a friend who has depression and anxiety. Despite these diseases making it extremely difficult for her to climb out of bed every day and go to work at a demanding job, she has done just that for years. She is amazing. Just as amazing as a blind man (like Eric Weihenmayer) or a double… Read More In Awe of Those with Mental Illness
Suicide is Not About Character
Both of these women blessed my life and the lives of countless others because they had such good character.
It wasn’t a character issue. It was an illness issue. They did need attention—like a person with a broken bone needs attention, like a person who just got in a car accident needs attention, like a person with pneumonia needs attention.… Read More Suicide is Not About Character
Anxiety and Loneliness
When you’re lonely, its like you don’t even exist on this earth with everyone else, its like being a ghost. I guess thats why solitary confinement is the worst punishment in prisons, its the most painful place a person can be in.
If you are feeling lonely, don’t beat yourself up about it. Human interaction is a normal human need. If anxiety is keeping you from getting the amount of human interaction that is good for you, then you are normal for feeling lonely. … Read More Anxiety and Loneliness
Anxiety and Traveling
The OCD wants me to live in a fire-proof, earthquake-proof, intruder-proof room (with a treadmill so I don’t die of inactivity) and never leave.
But even if that would be a safe life, it would be an empty, unhappy, meaningless life.
I have to be willing to risk my life in order to have a happy and meaningful life. I have to fight to do what feels important and meaningful to me.… Read More Anxiety and Traveling
Faith, Hope, and OCD 