Don't we all suffer from OCD of thoughts and emotions?

[amazingjourney]

I found the A&E series "OCD" and "Hoarder" to be the depiction of the same behavior--- people in the show hoard stuff; we one the other hand, are obsessive compulsive thinkers and hoarders of thoughts, emotions, and memories.

The people in the show engage in all kinds of compulsive behaviors--checking stove 30 times before finally go out of the door, making right turns of their body 20 times before going to work, kissing their dogs exactly 12 times after coming home....

Hoarders bring in all kinds of stuff into their home, until the home turn into a trash pit. Most of the things they hoard are of sentimental values. Some hoard things to prepare for possible future use. Some just do not know how to make decision when it is time to get rid of things. So they delay making decisions and let the pile grow and grow until it gets out of control.

Most of them know this is not a normal behavior and would love to change. But they found any change to be very difficult.

So despite the motivation to stop, they just keep on doing it years and years and years.

I found this to be what we all are doing with our thoughts, memory, and emotions.

We all are compulsive with our thoughts, emotions, and memories.

We get so attached and used to all these behavior that although we know it might be good if we could clear up a little of space in ourselves, we don't know how to do it anymore.

So we just keep going and let thoughts, emotions, and memories clutter up the space in us. When we try to clean up, we even resist letting go. But at the same time, we also feel upset about why we had hoarded so many "stuff" in us.

We don't like to get organized of these stuff in us one by one, because we don't like to face that humongus pile and have to make hard decisions. So we let it go on.

The more we turn our head away, the bigger the pile grow.

What if this pile can somehow disappear so that we can have all the space in us back?

[CFTraveler]

Do we all suffer from this? No, I don't think so.
The difference between someone with a pathology (OCD or hoarding, addictions, or any other emotional or mental disorder) and someone else, is the impact it has in our lives. Ritualistic behavior is built in for a reason, caution and habits are there for a reason, but they become pathological when the behavior gets in the way of life's enjoyment, or is used to avoid coping with the simplest problems. Hoarders and people with OCD do the same thing anyone with any kind of addictive behavior does- they soothe themselves with these actions to avoid living life, or are overwhelmed by them to the point they cannot live life.
Washing my hands after a day at the park may help keep me safe, but spending all day washing my hands and never making it outside are not the same thing.
Even though most if not all behaviors are habits, they are not used to cope with any and all stresses, and even though they sometimes can cross the line, in and of themselves they are things we need to function in life, and that's where the difference is.
I didn't see the latest special on hoarding, but I saw the one before. The lady that lived in the horrible place did it after her husband died. It is obvious that her behavior started with a very traumatic experience, one she was not prepared to deal with, so she turned to the things that reminded her of him, and it became more important to not use them, than to actually take care of herself and her animals. So she stopped living in the place she lived in and started living in her head, and her surroundings became living hell.
So the problem is not the behaviors themselves, but the tendency to use ritual to take the place of feeling emotions, the inability to cope with them.
I agree that we do tend to attach meaning to that which have served us in the past, and that is a very serious problem, because we are often not equipped to change and grow and have these beliefs change and grow with us.
But I have hope, I think we can.

[Beekeeper]

I agree that we do tend to attach meaning to that which have served us in the past, and that is a very serious problem, because we are often not equipped to change and grow and have these beliefs change and grow with us.
But I have hope, I think we can.


I think it's pain that triggers the change. Just as many outwardly compulsive people become aware of the pain and disadvantage their behaviours cause, so do many inwardly compulsive people and then they find ways to change this.

[Palehorse Redivivus]

This post actually helped me out a lot. What I'm finding lately is that a lot of various dysfunctions, I thought I was "over" years ago by just gritting my teeth and stopping the behavior via sheer force of will until I didn't feel the urge to do it anymore. Then, months or years later, the same behavior would come back to haunt me in the form of other people showing up in my life and doing it to an extent that infringed on my ability to function even more than my old trait did.

Working on integrating things in a way that gives those aspects a better function rather than sending them off to degrade until they're too severe and decentralized to get rid of, lol. But this post identified some things I hadn't recognized yet, and also reiterated the part where for instance physical hoarding has implications for how we manage our thoughts and a lot of others things. So w00t. :D

[amazingjourney]

Thank you CF! I appreciate your input. I probably didn't make myself clear, so I would explain a little more what I meant. Let me know if this makes sense.


The difference between someone with a pathology (OCD or hoarding, addictions, or any other emotional or mental disorder) and someone else, is the impact it has in our lives.



When we keep our thoughts, emotions, stories, going around and around in our head, it take us away from our true being. From the view of our purest being, there definitely is an impact to who we truely are.




Ritualistic behavior is built in for a reason, caution and habits are there for a reason, but they become pathological when the behavior gets in the way of life's enjoyment, or is used to avoid coping with the simplest problems.



We tend to over think, over indulge ourselves in emotional up and downs, and stories that have become our own identity. We do this because we don't know how to do otherwise anymore. When we really get quiet and into the silence, we get uncomfortable because facing our own existance can be uncomfortable. So we get up and do something else and keep on thinking, and keep our stories going. That makes us feel better than facing our truth.





So the problem is not the behaviors themselves, but the tendency to use ritual to take the place of feeling emotions, the inability to cope with them.
[/quote]


It is okay to let thoughts, stories, emotions, memories to flow through us freely, but most of us have lost the ability to do so. The problem is not the thoughts, stories, emotions, memories, the problem is we hoard them compulsively, even when they don't really serve us good or when they have cluttered our space in us, our true being.

We do this because we thought keep the thinking and emotional ups and downs make us feel better, than facing the ugly cluttered up inside.

This is waht I meant. Hope this makes sense. :)