Swanson: "Whatever you do... don't provoke the bird"Gopher Gary: "What bird?"Swanson: *SCREAMS*
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You'll never self-actualize the subconscious canopy of stardust with that attitude.
I caught driftingblizzard
Current obsession: psychology. 'scuse lecture.My idiot psychiatrist tried to diagnose me with OCD. Twice. I read several books about it and concluded that not only didn't I have OCD, I didn't have an anxiety disorder, period. Turns out the guy can't tell OCD obsessions from Aspie obsessions, OCD neatness from Aspie need for organization. You'd think telling OCD from Asperger's would be easy, but apparently it's not. Not that you can't have both, of course... actually I would guess OCD is more common with Aspies than with NTs, because we're naturally organized, and comforted by repetition, predictability, etc.Anyway, so far as I can tell, OCD's an anxiety disorder... kind of... so there's a bunch of different things you can try with it. There's the anti-anxiety pills, yeah; but they're not going to do anything if you can't get at the basis of the problem--the thoughts that get stuck in your head, and the way you have to do stuff to make yourself feel less anxious. Pills never solve anything; they just make it easier to solve... kind of like putting oil in your engine; it won't make the engine start up but it sure makes it easier. So there's a lot of things you can try (and probably take a lot of practice) to try to live with obsessions (OCD ones, not Aspie ones)... One guy I met just started distracting himself by doing something non-repetitive whenever he felt like he needed to count stuff... he had kind of mild OCD though, and he was taking some kind of pill too. I guess if it'd been stronger OCD he would've just ended up with a new compulsion out of it.I've also heard that OCD is something like your brain getting the hiccups--the tendency to not be able to throw away one thought and start with a new one. Apparently there are medications that help with that... originally developed for seizures, I think?... Anyway, they probably need you to work on the OCD habits, too; another way of making it easier.Oh, and there's the "suppression" theory. If you try not to think of something, you think of it even more--that's true for everybody but apparently for OCD brains it causes anxiety, causes you to feel like you can't stop your own thoughts, like you're out of control. If you could somehow stop yourself from trying to suppress the obsession, then maybe the OCD wouldn't be as annoying. Don't know if it would help, but it's an idea.Then there's the phobic tendencies... when you start to fear certain things or actions... Those can get dealt with the same way you deal with a phobia. Technical name is progressive desensitization; in practical terms it means easing into doing or encountering whatever you fear, so you get used to it. You start out with something that's just a little bit uncomfortable and work up to until you can tolerate the worst possible thing... Like if you were scared of heights you'd start out by imagining standing on a step stool and work up to actually going up to the 12th floor balcony. That kind of thing. Helps to learn relaxation techniques.Speaking of relaxation... That helps with everything, even if you don't have OCD... Highly recommended to learn a few things... Not like the crazy new-agey stuff, but the kind of thing that can get the tension out of your muscles and stop you getting your blood pressure up about stuff.
Caught Lucifer.
