Walking in the Shoes of OCD

I first tried meditation when I was around 8. My mom brought me to a meditation guru who assigned me a mantra. What's a mantra, you ask? He advised it was a word to focus on while meditating. It was meant just for me but in the spirit of challenging magical thinking, I'll let you in on the secret: eng. The sound "eng" said in a slow and ceremonial way. I didn't like meditating. But I did it for my mom. I was a  responsible child. My mom tells me stories of how I'd unpack my backpack upon returning from school to get started on my assignments. Never once did she have to ask whether my homework was completed. It was done before dinner. I meditated as the responsible 8-year-old I was but I hated when she meditated. When she meditated when I had friends over, that is. If my friends and I had to maneuver through our home, it often involved walking by my meditating mother. I felt mortified that they would get a glimpse of her in an upright, stoic position, ey...

Beyond the Doubt , a Facebook page, recently posted quite the gem of an article which you can find by clicking  here But I've summarized the meat and potatoes: The Intolerance of Uncertainty Scale was created back in the nineties by a Canadian psychologist who refers to a higher score as a "cognitive vulnerability." This, more specifically, was my favourite quote from the article: [The psychologist] compares extreme intolerance of uncertainty to an allergic reaction. "If you’re allergic to nuts, and you have a piece of birthday cake that has a drop of almonds in it, you have a violent physical reaction to it,” he says. “A small amount of a substance that’s not harmful to most people provokes a violent reaction in you. It’s like a psychological allergy. What a find! Like mining for metaphors! I recently had allergy testing and watched as hives transpired across my forearms (please excuse the veins.)  Side note: I posted this photo on my Instagram ac...

I recently had a fantastic interaction with a customer service representative. Mid-conversation, she commented that she is so OCD. I smiled politely, while feeling like I was doing an injustice to the blog I created less than 24 hours prior. But what are you supposed to say? Especially when you're not sensing ill intent. I'm not about to start policing the English language. I recognize that our culture has misguided people. I recognize that it's said in passing. Plus she was a really great employee! So I did some research when I got home. How would one broach the subject? I tried: How to respond when someone says they are so OCD. Too wordy. Next up: I'm so OCD rebuttal. Too specific. But what I did find were various articles posing the same questions: Is standing in line at the grocery store really the best place to educate others? Will my choice of wording put the person on the defensive? Can my level of passion be portrayed in a couple of minutes? Will the ...