Is living by yourself good for your OCD?
Thank you for reading my blog,
Is living by yourself good for your OCD? I’m asking this question for the reason I’m living by myself for the first time maybe ever. I have told you that mom passed away in February, and dad we put in a home at the end of March. My aunt will not come down until it cools off in Arizona, which to her will be November, so from about May until now I have been by myself. It has its pros and cons like everything else. Pros are you can do anything you want, anytime you want, be as loud or quiet as you want, eat what you want, etc. Cons are you are by yourself all the time, no one to talk to, no one to do anything with, and everywhere you look it reminds you of your mother for it was her home. I’m trying to work on that. What does this have to do with my OCD? I have been going about my business in the house, not overly paying attention to my OCD. I have caught myself a couple of times doing a compulsion, but nothing crazy. Now, that changed when my son and granddaughter showed up to look to see if I had any of my old fishing stuff in the shed. I didn’t realize right away, however what I noticed myself doing was watching them very closely on what they touched and used. I did one compulsion. My granddaughter went into the bathroom, used the water and dried her hands. I don’t know if she used soap or not. I didn’t think she did, nonetheless I changed out the towel in the bathroom. Why did I do this? In my mind if she only rinsed her hands off then dried them to me the towel was dirty, and should be changed out. One thing I should mention is I haven’t used any towels in the bathroom for many years for the reason I didn’t like the way mom washed them. Another reason is so many people use them and don’t really wash their hands well enough then use the towel, so I have been using the towels in my bedroom. I recently washed all the towels, and have been using the one in the bathroom most of the time. This is a new area for me to beat my OCD. This will not be easy for me. One problem I have with trying to beat this is people right now don’t come over a lot, so I will not have a consistent opportunity to beat this problem. My aunt will start coming down next month about once a month until May when it gets hot. I will at least have one opportunity a month to work on this issue with my OCD. I feel I will need more than that to beat this issue. Is living by yourself good for your OCD? For me with contamination OCD I would say not. I am getting used to doing things a certain way, and keeping things a certain way. When someone comes into my area and interrupts it, it bothers me. I’m thinking if I had someone around all the time or people come around more often like once a week it wouldn’t bother me as much for them to touch stuff or do stuff around the house. I could be wrong about this. Another thing I think I have mentioned in a past post is I am just starting to bring stuff out of my bedroom for the first time ever, so when people come over they will be able to touch it and breathe on it. This ties into what I’ve been talking about with my son and granddaughter coming over. What is your opinion: is living by yourself good for your OCD? Let me know.
If you would like to contact me for any reason, I now have a contact me tab at the top of the page.
Here are some websites to find help with your OCD.
In Arizona
https://ocdandptsdtherapy.com/
United States & Global
Please remember that I am not a therapist, but a person who has OCD, cares about others, and wants to help any way I can. I am not giving advice. I am just telling my own experiences, and praying my experiences help someone. If you need help please go get the help you need.
Until next time,
Tracy T. Agnelli
