- she knew her thoughts were wrong, but she knew she couldn't stop them alone.
- a lot of people with OCD choose to suffer in silence. their thoughts are their dirty little secret.
- psychiatrists are clear: OCD is not simply an exaggerated form of everyday worries. and it's a mistake to think that the apparently trivial substance of some intrusive and obsessive thoughts mean they cannot be serious problems.
- in phobias, the feared stimulus is external. but in OCD it comes from within, from our own thoughts.
- it felt good to say those things out loud. it was a relief to free them from my head and expose them to light.
- shit, what if i hadn't explained what happened exactly right. they might have misunderstood.
- i hear the rain outside batter against the window and i saw the world again as it had been before that first obsessive thought. i saw opportunities and hopes, i looked beyond the horizon, and i smiled. the relief was so strong.
- freud, who spoke german, used the term zwangneurose (obsessuonal neurosis). the world zwang was translated as 'obsession' in london, but as 'compulsion' in new york. faced with confusion, scientists introduced the hybrid term 'obsessive-compulsive', a label subsquently given to millions of people, as a compromise.
- to resist a compulsion with willpower alone is to hold back an avalanche by melting the snow with a candle.
- obsessions meant that i navigated much of life after the summer of 1991 on autopilot.
may 23 2019 ∞
jul 29 2019 +