My psychologist in Seattle introduced me to the idea of “lifestyle” exposures, as compared to purposeful exposures. I might go in and say something like, “My son pooped his pants but I didn’t throw out the clothes he was wearing!” in an effort to show my progress. But things I can’t control (i.e., my son’s bowel…
An introduction to “Everyday Thursday”
While there are definitely a lot of important topics still to cover relating to OCD and Mormon life, I think it’s nice to take a break from all that for one day a week and do an update. If I were going to my psychologist, this would be similar to the first five or ten minutes of…
What would (a normal person) do?
My best friend and I go to the same psychologist, and she coined the phrase “What would Bob do?” for when we aren’t exactly sure how we should react in a situation. This might seem extremely silly to some people, and it may very well be, but it is actually super helpful when you have OCD. We are…
The religion card
I am not a psychologist, nor have I done in depth research on the prevalence of OCD or other mental illnesses based on religious preference or belief in God. However, people like to look for correlations, cause and effect, etc. Are you OCD because you are a Mormon? If I didn’t believe in God, would my mental…
My story, part five
Now we have part five of “My OCD Life Story, So Far”: Recent Past/Now (it’s getting a little excessive so I’m finishing it up today with a long one 😉 We had been living in Utah and moved to California for my husband’s work. Once again I was called as Primary President in our ward, and…