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Obsessions
You
ask yourself if you dressed appropriately. Everyone else
is wearing a conservative suit or dress. You knew you shouldn't
wear blue. Is blue conservative? From your seat next to
the podium, you look around the auditorium, counting the
number of people wearing blue. It's a memorial service,
not a funeral, but you feel ashamed. You might as well have
come in your underwear.
Suddenly
you close your eyes, blood rushing to your cheeks. Can they
see your underwear? You pull your legs closer together,
imagining yourself on stage without pants. What a sick thought!
In
a minute you have to stand up and give a short speech, and
you can't remember your first line. You'll reach for the
microphone and say something ridiculous. What if you tell
the audience to check out your underwear? You can't seem
to think of anything else. You start to count backwards
from ten. By the time you reach zero, you think, you'll
be able to picture yourself with your pants back on, and
you'll remember what to say.
Ten,
nine, eight . . .
This
chapter covers the following topics:
- Obsessions
- Obsessions
in OCD Are Most Commonly About Illness, Doubts, and Symmetry
- Repetitive
Thoughts Can Occur in Several Other Illnesses
- What
Causes OCD?
- Psychotherapy
and Medication Can Be Effective for OCD
This
excerpt may not be reproduced without written permission
from the publishers.
Fifty Signs of Mental Illness: A Guide to Understanding
Mental Health
Yale University Press / New Haven and London
Copyright © 2005 by James Whitney Hicks
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