OCD IS NOT AN EVERYDAY DISORDER

Have you wondered why your colleague obsessively scrubs her hand till it’s almost bruised or why your boss always insists on keeping his eclectic collection of pens arranged in a particular order? That’s perhaps because they both suffer from a kind of anxiety disorder that they are either unaware of or choose not to speak about.

Obsessive Compulsive Disorder or OCD is a chronic, anxiety disorder that is much misunderstood and, therefore, loosely used by people. Commonly, it’s connected with personal hygiene and perfectionism. In reality, OCD is much more than washing hands or organising pens in a certain order. It is about the anxiety victims face while curbing intrusive thoughts such as the presence of germs everywhere, or dealing with disarray in everyday life. That is why the roots of OCD go way deeper into the subconscious mind of a person and distort their perception. “What sets apart those who are suffering from an anxiety disorder, of which OCD is one, is another idea, unspoken, but powerful, that lies underneath the surface. It is the idea that danger is lurking everywhere,” writes Dr Fredric Neuman, Director of the Anxiety and Phobia Treatment Centre, on his blog.

The unspoken idea that New York-based psychiatrist Dr Neuman talks about, is rather elusive in nature. Only people suffering from OCD realise they are going through it. Those witnessing it, perceive it as a personality quirk rather than a disorder. Owing to the low awareness around the disorder, people associate OCD with various commonplace activities, such as cleaning the house till it is spotless. Albert Rothenberg, professor of Psychology at Harvard University explains the difference between “liking” a clean house and obsessive cleanliness. “In the latter, you will have the presence of rigidity, excessive attention to detail, preoccupation with control of disorder and dirt. The latter can be measured by amounts of time spent on cleaning, intolerance of the slightest disarray or disorder, and punitive response to change or interference by others,” says Rothenberg.

Another major misconception around OCD is that it can be tamed by a person suffering from it, if he chooses to. How hard is it to control an irrational behaviour? Dr Ashlesha Bagadia, a clinical psychiatrist, dispels the notion that it can be tamed: “There is repetitive behaviour to reduce the anxiety caused by the obsessive thoughts, but the repetitive compulsions don’t reduce the anxiety much, and they can get caught up in a vicious cycle of obsessive thoughts and compulsive behaviour.” Once anxiety kicks in, it springs compulsive behaviour that fuels the anxiety even further—it becomes a process that runs on itself, making OCD difficult to control.

Take the case of Aditi, a young mother, who had been struggling with OCD for more than five years. Aditi had compulsive cleaning behaviour and contamination phobia. She couldn’t use a washroom if someone had used it before her. She would spend hours cleaning the bathroom or bedroom, even if someone touched an object. Aditi even had to quit her job because of her obsessive compulsions. Her husband supported her, but in his own ways. For the most part of it, he believed her condition was incurable, and only she could control her OCD through a strong will and determination. However, not everyone can rise above OCD just through willpower. Dr Bagadia explains, “For people with OCD, they never know when the anxiety will grip them and when they will lose control. They are unhappy about their own condition but feel compelled to act that way anyway. That’s why they are called compulsions.” Aditi’s condition took a turn for the worse when she had her first child.OCD tends to worsen during pregnancy and the postpartum period because it’s the most unpredictable time for a woman, and people suffering from OCD struggle with unpredictability. “Being anxious during pregnancy can cause a lot of harm to the developing infant. During the postnatal stage, the infant can be fussy, and not easily soothed by a mother who’s anxious herself,” adds Dr Bagadia. Aditi eventually realised that if she didn’t get professional help, it would affect her relationship with the child. With her husband’s support, she sought help. They both spent time in understanding the condition and the best option for treatment—a combination of medication and therapy. After months of therapy and support from her husband, Aditi was free from her illness. Now, she spends her days enjoying being a mother, and is looking forward to getting back to work, as well.

Family and friends play an important role in one’s battle against OCD. Without them or any other emotional support, an individual with OCD may find it quite difficult to escape its perils. Consider 45-year-old Ashok, who lived alone in an apartment. He lost his mother when he was young and had no siblings. When his father, too, passed away, his OCD worsened. Ashok had obsessions around symmetry and numbers, which were followed by checking behaviour that would go on for hours every day. To suppress his anxiety, he would arrange his desk in a particular order every morning, spend hours going through reports, miss deadlines and often argue with his co-workers if something was not done the way he preferred them done. Due to his compulsive behaviour, Ashok sunk into depression. That’s when his boss came to the rescue.

He connected Ashok to a therapist who suggested behaviour therapy to reduce his compulsive behaviour. The therapist helped Ashok look beyond his trauma of losing his parents, which was a trigger for his OCD. Through daily practice, Ashok was able to overcome his disorder and return to a normal work life.

When others start recognising OCD as a disorder, and not some “every-day-behaviour”, it becomes easy for patients to cope with their anxiety. It is an assurance that they are not alone in their battle. “Many people don’t open up for the fear of being teased or laughed at, especially for something that looks trivial to the observer but can be really painful to the sufferer,” says Dr Bagadia. The first step for any family member or a friend is to build trust. Once a person suffering from OCD feels comfortable sharing his predicament, people can suggest corrective measures to deal with it. “Family members should strongly encourage possible long term psychotherapy and ensure the patients take their medication, refuse to comply with obsessive and compulsive demands for absolute cleanliness and rigidities of behaviour, etc. The most important is to support and maintain optimism about continuing treatment,” adds Rothenberg. The assurance of not being alone is bigger than any intrusive thought or compulsive idea. If those with OCD have the unflinching support of their loved ones, they can win their battle quite comfortably.

ARE YOU TAKING THINGS FOR GRANTED?

Harry wakes up, white light piercing through his eyes. With difficulty, he tries to look around, but he can’t. It is as if he is bathed in numbness. He tries not to panic and stay calm. But it is not easy to relax. After all, events from the previous day play constantly on his mind. The massive heart attack he suffered made him take note of life and its transience. Until that moment, he never appreciated what he had—the various gifts of life. Today, lying motionless in the hospital, he finds himself fighting for his dear life.

Harry here is but a fictional character. Yet, each of us might be able to relate to him directly or indirectly. Life is fleeting, and in a fraction of second, everything can change without a warning. This isn’t a revelation, but a well-known truth. Yet, the cruel irony is that we often take life for granted without the slightest fear that tomorrow we may not have all that we have today. Assuming our bodies would function well forever, we seldom pay attention to our health and wellbeing; as if there is ample time, we often put our lives on hold, not pursuing our cherished dreams; as if our loved ones will be always around, we hardly invest time in our relationships; taking our immediate surroundings for granted, we pollute and deplete natural resources, putting our own survival at risk.

Given the limited time we have on earth, we ought to be more grateful for life. But are we as grateful as we should be? More importantly, why aren’t we appreciative enough for the things around us? Social psychology experiment ‘Violinist in the Metro’ offers an insight. In this experiment, world-renowned violinist Joshua Bell wore everyday clothes and played in a corner of the Washington DC metro station during rush hours. Famous for playing complex pieces with tremendous ease, the violinist’s concerts always sell out and each ticket costs no less than a 100 dollars. But, when he played at the station, the outcome was different. Over a thousand passengers crossed paths with Bell that day without even noticing him or his performance. Only a handful of people stopped to listen. This experiment revealed something profound: we could very well overlook something remarkable for two reasons—one, because it is ubiquitous and hence seems familiar and commonplace, and two, because we are seldom mindful, living in the present moment.

So, what does this mean for us? Breaking out of the inertia of comfort and familiarity, the first step toward a life of appreciation is to acknowledge its importance in life. Soulveda brings you five simple approaches that can help make gratitude our second nature.

Being present in the present

When we consciously notice our lives and our external environment at every moment, we pay attention to the sights, sounds, fragrances and sensations that come our way and the emotions they evoke. We realise that every moment comes with a million things to be grateful for, and that life is about finding joy in the smallest of things—the smell of grass, the pitter-patter of rain, the beauty of a flower, or the playfulness of a puppy. Life gives us a million reasons to smile in the here and now, we only need to pay attention to them to fill our hearts with joy.

Blinded by negativity, we hardly acknowledge our own accomplishments and start taking everything good that comes our way for granted.

Generosity resides more in the spirit and the heart, not necessarily in the purse.

THE DANGERS OF REPRESSED EMOTIONS

“Your emotions make you human. Even the unpleasant ones have a purpose. Don’t lock them away. If you ignore them, they just get louder and angrier.” ― Sabaa Tahir

Every single day, we encounter stimuli in our external environment that trigger a mix of emotions within us. Some are positive, others are negative. Naturally, we welcome positive emotions because they make us feel good—variants of good. But when it comes to negative emotions, we rarely address them. As a matter of fact, we either suppress or repress them.

To better understand what ‘suppression’ and ‘repression’ mean, let’s take a simple example: Say, we’ve had the roughest of days at work, and at the end of the day, we get back to a messy home and an argument with the spouse that quickly escalates to an unwanted magnitude. It is, indeed, a negative stimulus and so, the negative emotion of anger stirs up within. In response, we could react in three probable ways: One, we could acknowledge our anger, and share it with someone, express it irrespective of how we are feeling. Two, sensing our rising anger, we could suppress it with the help of the classic mechanism of deep breaths, counting to ten. That would mean shifting our focus and glossing over the emotion. Three, we could repress our emotion.

Studies show that our subconscious mind, sometimes, represses the surge of negative emotions because it perceives them as harmful to our psychological wellbeing and self-image. According to the study Repression: Finding Our Way in the Maze of Concepts published by the National Centre of Biotechnology Information: “Repressive-defensiveness is characterized by a non-conscious avoidance of threatening information.” And so, a person with repressive tendencies is likely to remain sociable and cheerful, who rarely complain about their misfortune. Their self-image too is positive. However, when such a person encounters someone who discusses an emotional problem, they are inclined to quickly change the subject in an attempt to avoid dealing with negative emotions.

So, what is the right way to handle negative emotions, given there are various ways to deal with them? Responds clinical psychologist Dr Joy Bannerjee, “It is in our best interest to acknowledge our emotions and feel through them. The more we become receptive to a spectrum of emotions that surface from within us, the better we’d become, at not only acknowledging them but also at processing and expressing them.” When we shun away negative emotions—either by suppressing or repressing them, we only bury them alive. They fester until one day they emerge to cause greater damage.

The more we keep them buried, the more they surface. Letting them surface, airing them out is the only way to experience the much-needed catharsis.

According to an article published by Jefferson Myrna Brind Center of Integrative Medicine How Emotional Processes Affect Physical Health and Well-Being, pent-up emotions can deteriorate our overall wellbeing. They can adversely affect our immune system making us susceptible to physical illnesses; they can lead to somatisation—an unconscious process wherein emotional pain is converted into physical pain, and they can shorten the lifespan. The article states, “Freud uncovered links between repressed emotions and physical symptoms nearly one hundred years ago… Over 80% of all doctor visits involved a social-emotional problem, while only 16% could be considered solely organic in nature.”

Negative emotions can wreak havoc. The more we keep them buried, the more they surface. Letting them surface, airing them out is the only way to experience the much-needed catharsis. Let’s look at a few simple ways to address the complex layers of emotions:

Acknowledge them

Anger, jealousy, guilt or fear, the first step to deal with negative emotions lurking within is to acknowledge them. Judging emotions and labelling them as good or bad never helps. Emotions are just emotions, and there is nothing wrong in feeling them. The more we accept them for what they are, the more we can feel and process them.

Write about them

Writing is almost a cathartic experience, a seamless way to air out the intense and complex emotions we feel from time to time. A journal of emotions and connected thoughts is always a useful tool. Experts say the key lies in being as descriptive as possible about how we feel, and why we feel the way we do. The more we record our emotions and the thoughts that triggered them, the better we are likely to get at decoding our own psyche. The better chance we have at navigating through our own thoughts and process everything we feel.

Use them to fuel creativity

Strong emotions—both positive and negative—are often the greatest source of inspiration. Some of the best artistic and creative endeavours in history have emerged from tapping into the intensity of human emotions. Art, in any form, has the ability to reach into the recesses of the deepest of emotions. Emotions, when allowed to spur art, become the fuel for creativity.