OCD Awareness Week

What is OCD Awareness Week?

OCD Awareness Week is a week-long event aimed at increasing awareness about OCD, a mental health disorder that affects millions of people worldwide. During this week, various organizations and individuals work together to educate the public about OCD, its symptoms, and available treatment options.

Why Individual Awareness is Crucial

At Restored Minds, we believe that healing comes from within. Therefore, individual awareness about OCD is the cornerstone of effective treatment and recovery. Understanding OCD on a personal level helps you identify symptoms early, seek the right help, and apply effective tools for recovery.

Recognizing OCD: What Does It Look Like?

One reason it takes an average of seven years for someone with OCD to seek help is that the disorder often disguises itself as other issues. During my struggle with OCD, a major theme I faced was scrupulosity, or religious OCD. I had intrusive thoughts about going to hell, getting possessed, and losing my salvation. These thoughts led me to engage in compulsive behaviors like excessive praying and Bible reading in an attempt to neutralize my fears.

Common OCD Manifestations

OCD can manifest in various ways, often categorized by different themes:

1. Religious Fears

   : Concerns about going to hell, sinning, or being possessed.

2. Health Fears

   : Worries about getting cancer, contracting diseases, or contaminating others.

3. Contamination Fears

   : Intrusive thoughts about germs, dirt, or toxic substances.

4. Relationship Fears

   : Doubts about love, fidelity, or leaving a partner.

5. Intrusive Sexual Thoughts

   : Unwanted thoughts questioning one’s sexuality.

6. Harmful Intrusive Thoughts

   : Fear of harming oneself or others.

Understanding the OCD Loop

It's important to see OCD as a mechanism rather than focusing solely on its themes. Think of it as an engine that runs on fears and compulsions. The more you engage in avoidance behaviors, the faster this loop spins, increasing your anxiety and reinforcing the disorder.

Taking Individual Responsibility

While it's valuable for loved ones to understand our struggles, real recovery begins with individual responsibility. Identify and be honest about every intrusive thought and compulsion. Compartmentalizing or ignoring certain fears will only hinder your recovery. Complete awareness of your OCD patterns is the first step toward healing.

Welcome to OCD Awareness Week!

Most of OCD awareness is geared towards helping the general public become more aware of OCD and the struggle of living day to day with OCD. And while I support this mission completely, I want to focus this episode on the importance of becoming more aware as individuals. Many people compartmentalize our struggle with OCD into boxes we feel comfortable addressing, and then avoid the areas of our mental health we don’t want to discuss. The reality is if we want other people to be aware of OCD and Anxiety, the best way we can do that is by first becoming more aware of all the ways it impacts and manifests in our own lives. Then we can begin to challenge our fears, grow as individuals, and evolve into better versions of ourselves. This will create a natural attraction that draws people to you and will ultimately inspire them to start looking at themselves on a deeper level and go on their own journey of transformation. 

Enjoy the show!