Dr. Alex George

This core OCD is something where

There's an obsession.

So the core thing that you're worried about often preys on your biggest fears, maybe being a good person or, you know, say, for example, being a good person is your important thing that you want to be.

Then everything in your life is to try and make sure that you don't do anything that could be aligned with not being a good person or punishing yourself for any mistakes you've made that would align with being a bad person.

So it is very cruel because you have this obsession and then your compulsion, the OCD part, so the C, the compulsive part, can be not just people think of as cleaning or tidying pencils, it can be rumination.

Rumination is a very core compulsion that people have.

fact-checking, reassurance-seeking, checking your thoughts, your context over and over and over again, that is a compulsion.

Now, of course, most people want to be a reasonably good person.

Most people have the ability to reflect and go, I made a mistake, I'll learn from it.

But the difference is you'll never get to the point where you accept and move on.

So a normal thing is like, I made a mistake, I offended someone, I feel bad about that, I'll remedy it, learn from it, move on.

It's not normal five years later to still be thinking about that interaction.

over and over and over again.

It is a very cruel thing, and I think it's much more common in the ADHD community.

Not that I've realized.

And someone said this, I thought it's very true.

Having OCD means that you are, if there's a crisis, you're the most prepared person in the room because you've imagined every single day and experienced in your body a crisis continually happening.

The way that it feels to have OCD is that you are living with your worst case scenario as if it's happening every single day.

So the visceral response you have, the anxiety, the worry, the dread, the all-consumingness of OCD is as if the thing you're afraid about is actually happening.

So when a disaster actually happens, often the most calmest people in the room are the ADHDers and the OCDers.