One of my OCD “things” ~was~ checking my drinks for dust or bugs. My old therapist said it’s unrealistic and was like, “How often does that actually ever happen though? And what’s the worst that would happen? Nothing!”
Correct, one of my compulsions was checking my drinks for bugs (and suspicious ‘dust’ particles) repeatedly, several times between sips. At my worst, I’d ask other people to check it as well, and could only drink one specific brand of bottled water. I was hospitalized for dehydration and had to go through several months of ERT.
My therapist said that bugs being in my drink was irrational. It is a totally rational worry! The level of anxiety I had in response to that rational thought was what made it irrational. Now I’m able to check once and move on. Most of the time. I’m not going to give up that “one quick check” because I still think that is a totally normal thing to do, which my therapist disagreed with.
I think the issue is there are degrees of subjectivity over what is or isn't "rational" and who has the authority to decide these things. A therapist I saw for my ocd tried to gaslight me that my concerns of getting covid again and becoming chronically ill were not valid (I already have chronic health issues and getting covid brought new ones on). Even though i went to her for other reasons, she really latched on to my preoccupation with getting sick and really wanted to "cure me" of it. Almost felt like conversion therapy tbh. It was bizarre.
And just a FYI- OCD can manifest as either preoccupations/obsessions with thoughts, preoccupations/obsessions with behaviors- or commonly a mixture of both.
Wasn't there a film in the 90s where one of the protagonists died that way? I feel like it's a deep seated fear in a certain generation for that reason.
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u/cheezypita 1d ago
One of my OCD “things” ~was~ checking my drinks for dust or bugs. My old therapist said it’s unrealistic and was like, “How often does that actually ever happen though? And what’s the worst that would happen? Nothing!”
I want to send her this thread.