animism and OCD

[Guest guest]

As an OCD sufferer (OCDer? *G*), I find this particular thread very

interesting. My girlfriend and I both have somewhat animistic views due to

our 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 more

comfortable with Taoism and similar animistic religions than the Western

ones.

My girlfriend rescues ugly or damaged homemade stuffed animals from

Goodwill, flea markets, and garage sales. In the case of the Christmas tree

mentioned below, I would probably have bought the tree in question had I

heard someone else deride its appearance. Neither of us can stand to see

someone hit or kick a stuffed animal.

As odd as animistic OCD rituals sound, in many ways they reflect some of the

more basic human religious impulses - the earliest religions that we're

aware of today were animistic in outlook. If the rituals surrounding them

become a problem, then that's certainly something to address. I'm not sure

that I would be particularly worried about the basic animistic impulses

themselves, though - they're just an extension of a natural human impulse.

If a child shows a concern for the feelings of " non-living " objects, take

that as an indication of the child's sensitivity and compassion towards

others. Most go through life having a hard enough time worrying about the

feelings of the living creatures (human or otherwise) around them - it takes

a very caring person to bother themselves with the feelings of the

non-living, as well.

I find this whole mailing list particularly fascinating. Though I don't

have children, I have a lot of experience with them as a teacher and

activity planner. My OCD cropped up when I was a very young child, sometime

back around 1970 or so. At that time nobody knew much about OCD (certainly

not 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 Thorazine

or something. Since I learned to hide my OCD when I was young, my parents

never realized anything was wrong (I was VERY good at hiding it). They knew

I was somewhat eccentric, but in a harmless way, so I was never put into a

treatment program. It's wonderful to see how recognition of the problem has

increased since Rappaport released " The Boy Who Couldn't Stop Washing. " I

joined this list to see how parents today cope with it, especially since I

would 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 were

looking at Christmas trees, I picked one out and she said, " No, that one's

too ugly " so we picked another one out, then after we left she was very sad

because she thought she hurt the other tree's feelings and now no one would

pick it for Christmas. It was hard to get her to understand the tree didn't

have feelings and didn't hear what she said about it.

Jay in Denver