It was lucky the next day was a Sunday, because I didn’t get to sleep until the sun came up. I read and reread and counted and cried silently from confusion and relief and doubt and so many emotions that by the time I slept, I felt like an empty well. It was all there. From the beginning I knew. OCD stands for obsessive compulsive disorder and is an anxiety disorder. Some believe it is a brain disorder, caused by the malfunction of a component of the brain called the amygdala. The disorder has two parts: obsessions and compulsions. These obsessions and compulsions take up considerable time and cause tremendous suffering for the individual. The sufferer believes that their obsessions and compulsions are central to their well-being, and sufferers can sometimes create intricate explanations to justify the continuance of their rituals. The fears could be: • Sanitation (fear of germs, disease) • Scrupulosity (fear of offending a higher power or acting contrary to your morals) • Personal Health Fears (fears of dying, choking, going insane) • Responsibility Fears (fears of harm coming to others) These fears cause the sufferer to create rituals to relieve the uncomfortable and highly distressing anxiety that follows.
