animism and OCD

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Thank you for sharing this insight that many of us could never have. I decided to bring up the topic of this thread with my 15yo OCDer, as he manifests it in so many ways, including a humongous family of stuffed animals which he used to try to take turns sleeping with. He agreed that he does try to make sure he doesn't hurt their feelings. When I protested that they are stuffed toys and don't have feelings, he simply disagreed. When I pointed out that he now sleeps with only one of the stuffed dogs (and has for at least 8 years), he replied that of course he sleeps with Wrinkles (its name) because he is his guardian angel. He has made comments about the dog being his guardian angel before, but I always assumed he was being humorous. I decided I couldn't handle any more of that conversation and dropped it. I had never realized before or thought about the animistic aspect of OCD.

I guess he'd better find a girlfriend with OCD if he expects to keep Wrinkles in his bed when he gets older!

Judy

-----Original Message-----From: [mailto:English@...]Sent: Wednesday, February 28, 2001 5:45 PM Subject: animism and OCDAs an OCD sufferer (OCDer? *G*), I find this particular thread veryinteresting. My girlfriend and I both have somewhat animistic views due toour OCD, but I haven't heard much about others experiencing this phenomenon.Over time it has come to influence our spiritual outlooks - we're both morecomfortable with Taoism and similar animistic religions than the Westernones.My girlfriend rescues ugly or damaged homemade stuffed animals fromGoodwill, flea markets, and garage sales. In the case of the Christmas treementioned below, I would probably have bought the tree in question had Iheard someone else deride its appearance. Neither of us can stand to seesomeone hit or kick a stuffed animal.As odd as animistic OCD rituals sound, in many ways they reflect some of themore basic human religious impulses - the earliest religions that we'reaware of today were animistic in outlook. If the rituals surrounding thembecome a problem, then that's certainly something to address. I'm not surethat I would be particularly worried about the basic animistic impulsesthemselves, though - they're just an extension of a natural human impulse.If a child shows a concern for the feelings of "non-living" objects, takethat as an indication of the child's sensitivity and compassion towardsothers. Most go through life having a hard enough time worrying about thefeelings of the living creatures (human or otherwise) around them - it takesa very caring person to bother themselves with the feelings of thenon-living, as well.I find this whole mailing list particularly fascinating. Though I don'thave children, I have a lot of experience with them as a teacher andactivity planner. My OCD cropped up when I was a very young child, sometimeback around 1970 or so. At that time nobody knew much about OCD (certainlynot the general public) - even if my parents had realized what was going on,the best I could have hoped for at the time was to be shot up with Thorazineor something. Since I learned to hide my OCD when I was young, my parentsnever realized anything was wrong (I was VERY good at hiding it). They knewI was somewhat eccentric, but in a harmless way, so I was never put into atreatment program. It's wonderful to see how recognition of the problem hasincreased since Rappaport released "The Boy Who Couldn't Stop Washing." Ijoined this list to see how parents today cope with it, especially since Iwould like to be a parent someday.- > In a message dated 2/27/01 6:53:10 PM Eastern Standard Time,> danacar@... writes:>> << pplied to Ava and baby animals but she was just telling me that if she> pets one of her stuffed animals she has to pat all of the other one's> heads and reassure them she loves them too. Also, if she takes a shirt> out of her closet to wear and then changes her mind she tells it that> it's "her favorite so don't worry".>> Dana in NC >>>My daughter, age 12, has this problem also. Last Christmas when we werelooking at Christmas trees, I picked one out and she said, "No, that one'stoo ugly" so we picked another one out, then after we left she was very sadbecause she thought she hurt the other tree's feelings and now no one wouldpick it for Christmas. It was hard to get her to understand the tree didn'thave feelings and didn't hear what she said about it.Jay in DenverYou may subscribe to the OCD-L by emailing listserv@... . In the body of your message write: subscribe OCD-L your name. You may subscribe to the Parents of Adults with OCD List at parentsofadultswithOCD-subscribe . You may access the files, bookmarks, and archives for our list at . Our list advisors are Tamar Chansky, Ph.D., Aureen Pinto Wagner, Ph.D., and Dan Geller, M.D. Our list moderators are Birkhan, Kathy Hammes, Jule Monnens, Gail Pesses, Kathy , and Jackie Stout. Subscription issues or suggestions may be addressed to Louis Harkins, list owner, at lharkins@... .