Just Right
Michael Trovato
Health Education Specialist at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center
“I have Obsessive Compulsive Disorder.”
It took me nearly 10 years to be able to say that sentence out loud to anybody.
10 years.
Now, some of you might be thinking, “yeah, I’m OCD about (something), too,” and you very well may be. For those of you who have not been diagnosed with OCD, I’m not quite sure that you understand, or at least not fully, what it is to have Obsessive Compulsive Disorder.
Allow me to share my story with you.
The general notion or stigma of what OCD is often includes repetitive hand-washing, worrying that a stove wasn’t turned off, or obsessing over the thought that your front door isn’t locked and constantly checking and double-checking to make sure that is actually is. And yes, this is OCD for some, and probably many diagnosed OCD patients.
The reality, though, for many, is that OCD goes far beyond washing hands and repeatedly checking stoves and locked doors.
My experience with OCD has had many facets over the last 22 years since my initial diagnosis. Some facets have come and gone, while others have remained constant. If I were to boil it down to the bare basics, my OCD has always been about two things:
- The way things feel, and
- The anxiety that I experience when things don’t feel “just right.”
Let me first talk about “just right” to clarify what I mean... (click below to continue reading)