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Sometimes when a person’s mind is contorted in a way that is strange and counter to his or her daily life, it helps to zoom out, to gain perspective and to know that a rationale may exist for even the most alarming thoughts and urges.
I don’t know whether reading the words above would have convinced me that I would get better when, in grade school, I experienced sudden onset OCD, or even when I experienced postpartum anxiety and hypochondria three decades later.
Part of the nature of obsession is that you cannot easily obtain sufficient distance from it: The thoughts, worries, and compulsions feel utterly overwhelming. But for those who crave perspective on ideas that flit through—or flood—their minds, the explanations in "Wicked Thoughts,” will be supremely helpful. Jena Pincott explains why intrusive thoughts are so often runaway and contradictory, and why psychologists’ recommendations for how to handle them at first feel contradictory as well. (Hint: If you are hurtling down a slope and resist, you tumble. But if you submit to gravity, you learn to ski.) Our minds are among the most complicated entities in the universe, capable of holding us hostage in myriad ways for myriad reasons, from fluctuations in hormone levels to the working out of normal urges. When thoughts get too vertiginous it is reassuring to know that we can claw our way back to familiar ground, however loath we are to admit the craggy lair from whence we came.
I hope you'll enjoy the recently published PT story referenced above, and consider obtaining the print edition from which this note is adapted. ~KP
