OCD is a maladaptive coping mechanism, which is why it presents in many different ways.

You might experience trauma, and develop agoraphobia by compulsively avoiding leaving your home.

You might have a chronic illness, and develop hypochondria as a reaction to medical trauma.

You could have a digestive disorder and suddenly you have contamination OCD around food, and become intensely fearful about your food making you sick.

You could have religious trauma, and develop scrupulosity/moral OCD as a form of ethical hypervigilance.

OCD sometimes emerges as a rubic’s cube, distracting us with obsessions that don’t connect to the real threat and danger at all.

OCD makes sense, especially when we consider that brains with OCD often have a lower tolerance for anxiety/doubt and higher propensity for avoidance.

It’s a disorder that is sensible when we consider the amount of doubt and helplessness we experience as human beings, too, especially as kids.

It also makes treating OCD straightforward: practicing distress tolerance & having safe, emotionally corrective experiences.

It also explains why other forms of therapy can be harmful — trying to “argue” with OCD and reassure someone is going to backfire, because we need to tolerate doubt and fear, not challenge it or engage it.

I just want to validate the hell out of anyone living with this disorder. Your brain works overtime to cope with this world we live in. It’s a self-soothing mechanism gone awry.

It’s not your fault, and once you get the right support, it can make all the difference.

Your brain isn’t broken. It’s doing the best thing it knows to do. And thankfully, brains are malleable, and we can learn new ways of being and moving through the world. Give it time.

You’re doing great. I promise.