Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder

[No_Mind]

Obsessive–compulsive disorder (OCD) is a mental disorder where people feel the need to check things repeatedly, perform certain routines repeatedly (called "rituals"), or have certain thoughts repeatedly.

I discovered I had it at about age 12. Over 30 years later I still have it. SSRI medications such as fluoxetine (Prozac) or sertraline (Zoloft) or escitalopram (Lexapro) provide some relief but not total.

For me talk therapy has not helped because I have always realised it is not normal behaviour and when a patient realises it is not normal behaviour talk therapy can achieve little; psychiatrists usually help one understand the problem but if the patient already understands the problem it is quite out of the psychiatrist's hand.

This video lists many types of OCD .. thankfully I have one of the less violent/embarrassing ones .. not obsessive thoughts of sex or violence .. but a rather tame type where I arrange all documents and magazines and shoes in perfect order and at 90° to the nearest edge (and get upset over sticky fingers from syrup or oily food but that is quite easily taken care of with a moist wipe).

This video lists major types of OCD

phpBB .

I am like this guy .. little less but it is accurate (specially the voice in the head acting as the "normal" over-watch) .. but unlike this guy I am never late .. if I say I will meet you at 4 PM it will be at 4 PM exactly.

phpBB .

If you hand me a sheaf of documents .. I will make sure they are in chronological order (such as you hand me reports of 12 pathological tests) or in ascending order of size of the page (with the smallest page at the front). And of course my shaving razor and everything else needs to be at perfect 90°.

I obsess over what I write .. the sentences (which is why many of my posts carry lot of edits .. especially those written when I am tired or sleepy). I hate commas and prefer .. in unofficial communication because I am never hundred percent sure of how comma is placed (I obsess over main, independent, dependent clauses and subordinating conjunction versus comma).

Do any of you suffer from it?

[No_Mind]

I also obsess over being sweaty (I obsess over being sweaty in a tropical city with 90% humidity!!) .. I dislike dust, grime and grease. Thankfully I am not a germaphobe but I bathe 4 times daily.

It is hard for me to shave since the shave must be perfect and needs an hour of toil. So I shave once a week. Better to have an elegant stubble than sport an imperfect shave being my logic.

I have intrusive thoughts all day .. did I keep my last 15 years insurance papers in perfect chronological order when I left home? .. next moment my brain would go .. No_Mind stop being a jackass .. and I reply Yes Sir ..

and then again after five minutes .. did I keep my last 15 years insurance papers in perfect chronological order when I left home? .. and my brain .. shut up No_Mind.

[User156079]

Who doesnt have compulsive behaviors? Reaction patterns and problem behaviors, thoughts and ideas. I dont think its at all weird or a disorder, just diffrent conditioning.

[befriend]

The book brain lock is a self therapy book written by a Buddhist and It has gotten terrific results with curing ocd

[No_Mind]

Who doesnt have compulsive behaviors? Reaction patterns and problem behaviors, thoughts and ideas. I dont think its at all weird or a disorder, just diffrent conditioning.

Good point. I should have explained it.

OCD is that point where reaction pattern interferes with life. Such as if I have very important business meeting but I have not been able to shave perfectly (as in perfect) the I cannot function .. I will rather sport a stubble or pay a visit to a barber to do a perfect job with a straight razor.

It creeps into daily life. At one time it took me probably an hour AM and an hour PM to put every little thing in my room in perfect place (all meds arranged in perfect order of ingestion), all documents perfectly sorted, all computer files and folders perfectly sorted, all music collections perfectly sorted ... so on)

Now I do it at times. With age the body cannot cope any more with the physical strain of having OCD and one is forced to compromise and be unhappy .. but the mind keeps on going tick, tick, tick .. that shirt is not perfectly folded, that document folder is not perfectly sorted .. which is why most OCD patients are very tired all the time.

you should see my email folders .. in all probably 12 .. mails sorted as general / friends / utility bills / credit card / debit card / loans and outstanding / humour & jokes / login id related -- like DW / health / never delete even by error / work / online shopping ...... it goes on and on and on .. and same for work email id .. one folder for each department I interact with.

same for my bookmark folders

same for everything else ..

The book brain lock is a self therapy book written by a Buddhist and It has gotten terrific results with curing ocd

Will look for it .. INR 588 .. let me buy it next month. Thanks

[User156079]

I have OCD behavior aswell, and it did cause me to be late for work many times, caused me to lose hundreds of what could be productive work hours and alot of suffering in the past, before i started to practise. It doesnt bother me anymore and ive learned what is going on a phenomenological level and regard it basicly as any other addiction, and realities of it as conditoned phenomens of three characteristics, the whole experience comes to be based on delusion and desire for it will be completely uprooted at Anagami stage.

My point is that if we call it OCD and even worse if we identify with it as my OCD. We cant really do anything about it from this perspective, because calling it OCD is a gross misunderstanding and a oversimplification of what is really happening.

Vipassana ftw.

[No_Mind]

I have OCD behavior aswell, and it did cause me to be late for work many times, caused me to lose hundreds of what could be productive work hours and alot of suffering in the past, before i started to practise. It doesnt bother me anymore,

That is good to know. For me it disappears for some months and then reappears. There is gradual waxing and waning in 18 month cycles.

The cycles are not perfect .. sudden stress can trigger a two month episode.

The habits however are always present. At low levels of OCD, I may take 3 months to sort my Inbox and at highest levels a week. But it never goes away. I am not going to sort my Inbox for a year .. is never going to happen.

The psychological pain waxes and wanes.

[binocular]

Scrupulosity is a morally / religiously "themed" kind of OCD. It's also sometimes called "the Catholic disease," because it seems most common among Catholics, although it's not exclusive to them.

Interestingly, the official stance of the Roman Catholic Church is that scrupulosity is a neurological disorder for which the person is not to blame. But I have heard from a Catholic monk that it is actually due to a lack of faith. And that explanation makes the most sense.

[No_Mind]

Scrupulosity is a morally / religiously "themed" kind of OCD. It's also sometimes called "the Catholic disease," because it seems most common among Catholics, although it's not exclusive to them.

Interestingly, the official stance of the Roman Catholic Church is that scrupulosity is a neurological disorder for which the person is not to blame. But I have heard from a Catholic monk that it is actually due to a lack of faith. And that explanation makes the most sense.

Interesting to know about it .. but the way it is described in Wikipedia -- "In scrupulosity, a person's obsessions focus on moral or religious fears, such as the fear of being an evil person or the fear of divine retribution for sin" -- 95% of those I know suffer from scrupulosity in some form including me.

For example, I will not kill rats using a break-back rat trap because it is bad Kamma is scrupulosity is it not?

Here we have lot of focus on sighing .. I will not do anything that causes a good man to sigh .. because if I do then Karma stirs and takes notice.

[binocular]

For example, I will not kill rats using a break-back rat trap because it is bad Kamma is scrupulosity is it not?

If the thoughts about this feel intrusive and you are impaired in your daily functioning because of those thoughts, then it seems to meet the reqirements for the definition of scrupulosity.

[No_Mind]

For example, I will not kill rats using a break-back rat trap because it is bad Kamma is scrupulosity is it not?

If the thoughts about this feel intrusive and you are impaired in your daily functioning because of those thoughts, then it seems to meet the reqirements for the definition of scrupulosity.

I have the phrase "Bad Kamma" cross my mind when I eat meat and I would not do anything wrong because God/Kamma will punish me. That is impaired is it not.

[binocular]

I have the phrase "Bad Kamma" cross my mind when I eat meat and I would not do anything wrong because God/Kamma will punish me. That is impaired is it not.

It could simply mean that you have moral principles.

[_anicca_]

For example, I will not kill rats using a break-back rat trap because it is bad Kamma is scrupulosity is it not?

If the thoughts about this feel intrusive and you are impaired in your daily functioning because of those thoughts, then it seems to meet the reqirements for the definition of scrupulosity.

I have the phrase "Bad Kamma" cross my mind when I eat meat and I would not do anything wrong because God/Kamma will punish me. That is impaired is it not.

It is impaired because there is a certain obsessive thought pattern around rigidly adhering to the precepts and not doing them for the benefit of bhavana, but out of the fear that you will be punished.

The key is to work with the obsessive, anxious thoughts.

Thank you for sharing; I also struggle with a mental disorder.

[No_Mind]

It is impaired because there is a certain obsessive thought pattern around rigidly adhering to the precepts and not doing them for the benefit of bhavana, but out of the fear that you will be punished.

[Dhammanando]

Interestingly, the official stance of the Roman Catholic Church is that scrupulosity is a neurological disorder for which the person is not to blame. But I have heard from a Catholic monk that it is actually due to a lack of faith. And that explanation makes the most sense.

The monk's view is the one that I'm familiar with. In conversation with Catholic monks I've found it's usual for them to relate scrupulosity to the sin of despair. As one writer puts it:

This is the kind of reasoning that can lead a person into scrupulosity:

• It’s one thing to offend a human person. These offenses can be forgiven.
• Things start to get bad when you offend a person of high dignity.
• The more sovereign the person offended, the more dangerous the offense.
• Things get really bad when you offend the greatest person—or rather, the three greatest Persons, namely, the Trinity.
• Even if the offense seems minor, it is still an offense against an infinite being.
• Though there are different degrees of sin, all sin is of one kind; all offenses against God are equally serious.
• Given the inevitability of sin, there’s not much hope of salvation.

https://www.catholic.com/magazine/print ... moral-life

But I hadn't heard that the Magisterium had declared scrupulosity to be a blameless neurological disorder. Do you have a source for that?

In the Pali commentaries scrupulosity is treated as a mode of the hindrance of worry and a near-enemy of zeal for the training (sikkhākāmatā).