________________________________ From: ED <[email protected]> To: [email protected] Sent: Sat, August 21, 2010 4:33:08 AM Subject: [Zen] OCD and OCPD
OCD and OCPD http://ocd.about.com/od/otheranxietydisorders/a/OCD_OCPD.htm Hi, I'm not sure why you posted this on the zen list but I will share that I have had 2 full blown anxiety attacks in my life, and one was in the middle of the Brazilian Amazon, that was OCD (my compulsioin was that I believed I was covered with invisible bugs and I had to keep getting up, out of bed to wash these bugs off my legs). The other anxiety attack, was a more traditional anxiety attack for which I called 911. I have been free from anxiety since May of 2009 having started my meditation practice around January of 2009 - but it's kind of been a little problem lately. It is unbearable, it is something that you call 911 for because it is unbearable. Or, if your doctor has given you plenty of tranquilizers, that works too, as long as you don't get anxiety all the time, and become tolerant to the tranquilizers. While I no longer have the "traditional" anxiety attacks, I do have rather high levels of anxiety which causes me to sit for 40 minutes per day, and do specific breathing exercises during meditation that are recommended for people with anxiety. This has helped. The other thing that helps a lot is intense aerobic exercise. Unfortunately, I got into a car accident in May which was not my fault. I was rear ended. I got really bad whiplash. This has made exercise near impossible, and I am getting mentally unwell, because I cannot exercise hard enough without my whiplash acting up. But, lately, I've been experimenting with my exercise bike, to see if I can manage to get a decent workout, without hurting my whiplash in my lower back. I think with a full month of physical therapy for my back, that I can finally use my exercise bike without my back going out. I probably will have to also do another month of physical therapy at least. I'm 48, and to get better, may take months of hard work in physical therapy. But I' guess I'll finish up by saying that I think as far as anxiety control, aerobic exercise and meditation are almost perfectly equal, in their ability to reduce anxiety. So, I do both! I do get mini bouts of OCD. We have a wood stove to heat our home in the winter. When I leave the house, I check that the woodstove door is locked 3 or more times, to make sure it is locked. If it were unlocked, our house would burn down, and so, I do a little ritual of touching the door handle 4 times before I leave my house. That probably does not rise to the level of true OCD, but I do have this ritual, because the consequences are so high, I want to make sure that when I drive away, that my house will not burn down! We have survived a tornado that destroyed our home in 2008. At least, we were able to save many possessions. But if you have a fire, it's ALL gone. Then, to boot, we don't have a full time fire department, and made of volunteers. So, they might not be of much help!So, I get a little stressed out about fire! :-) Thanks for sharing the post! Best, Ari
