Information on popular complementary and alternative medical topics

I read somewhere that one way you can put more laughs into your life is to do something just plain outrageous. How long has it been since you have done something really GOOFY? Intentionally, I mean. Like jogging in triangles? Or driving in circles in a parking lot just for fun? Or going to the market wearing your wig inside out? I had gone quite awhile without enjoying some goofy fun, so Marilyn (my partner in crazy fun) and I decided to do something about it. We knew of a pastor who had been having some tremendous family problems and who was feeling down and depressed. He had said to me, “What I REALLY need is a visitation from the angels!”Well, that was all we needed. The next day Marilyn and I went by our church, where we slipped into the baptismal room unnoticed and “borrowed” two long, full-flowing, baptismal robes. We drove over to our friend’s home and stopped to don the robes about a block from his house. A mailman walking by nearly dropped his pouch when he saw two women get out of a Volvo and toss on these white robes with heavy weights in the bottom that sort of clinked as we walked.When my husband, Bill, heard about our fun, he thought it was sacrilegious and unspiritual. His main concern was “Did you get the robes returned to the church?” But our pastor friend thought it was great. He got up in church and told everyone about these two women who came to give him a “visitation from the angels.”*28\316\2*

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a middle-aged carpenter who had been tormented by fears that his house was infested with insects told our group:

Keeping busy is good for me. If I let myself sit around I start thinking about those termites. I imagine them in the wall, in the attic, in the floor, everywhere. I start walking around looking for little piles of their sawdust. So I work on my car, clean the house, buy groceries, start my mother-in-law’s wood stove—whatever needs to be done is better for me than watching TV. If I just sit around I start to dwell on things.

A young woman with handwashing and cleaning compulsions who worked as a hospital aide noted, “The best thing I’ve found is to schedule my days so that each hour is accounted for. When I have things to do, I don’t obsess so much.”
I was skeptical of the utility of “lead an active life” when I first started specializing in OCD. A person should learn to be able to enjoy free time, I thought, and not be driven to activity. But I didn’t know much about OCD back then. The fact is that the strategy of keeping active can be extremely helpful.
A man with severe OCD shared a reminiscence that was both touching and edifying. During his twenties, when his OCD was at its absolute worst, the only thing that kept him out of the hospital was keeping busy by helping others. Every day he would go his relatives’ houses and ask if anyone needed anything done. He would fix a furnace, mow a lawn, chop firewood, anything at all. He became a sort of legend in his family for his good works. Yet, he told us, all this activity served a dual purpose. It kept his mind occupied so that he was not constantly tormented by obsessions; and, at a time when he was filled with agonizing self-doubt, it made him feel good about himself.
What helps OCD sufferers the most is being involved in tasks that are challenging and creative, tasks that provide a sense of accomplishment. Perhaps that is why Winston Churchill, who suffered tormenting obsessions himself, once said: “Those whose work and pleasures are one are fortune’s favorite children.” The child in the excellent movie The Touching Tree (available through the OC Foundation) discovers that his OCD is completely quieted when he acts on stage. A good strategy for anyone, but especially for OCDers, is to find a creative endeavor, a mission, and be devoted to it 100 percent.
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