Checking with OCD
This is also an area I struggle with.
Checking to me is like this:
I see that the door is locked, but my brain won't comprehend it and process the fact. So I have to keep checking until it finally clicks for me and my brain excepts what my eyes see. I used to spend a long time checking things everyday. It got bad enough I put a nail polish color on all the locks on the windows and doors for extra confirmation they were locked, so then I could see they were locked by the position of the lock and I could see the color double confirming it. Did it work? Not all the time, because the problem of my brain not accepting what my eyes saw was still there. Sometimes I would have to keep checking. One time I made a checklist up of everything in my house that had a lock. I checked everything on the list every night, ticking the boxes off as I went. Then I had confirmation in writing. That didn't always work either. Soon after I'd complete the check list, I'd start doubting things were really locked again.
I would ask others if the door was locked to hear it from them. That would make me feel some better. At some point you have to just lock it and walk away. You know how to lock a door or window. It's just that your brain won't process the action because it is glitching. So you're then stuck in repeating the action until your brain decides to break through the glitch. Sometimes that just won't happen for you. It does help to have someone else be in charge of locking up, but sometimes you have to do it.
To me I really realize now that instead of being nuts, it really was just my brain malfunctioning. Think of your brain as the center of communication that it is for your body. Your eyes are lines that take info back to your brain. To do this they must pass through cables. Now imagine some of those cables are partially blocked, or short circuiting. The info is not going to pass through smoothly and in an efficient manner will it?
How to fix it?
Our nervous system also has a coating called the Myelin Sheath.
It is a white fatty substance that insulates the axons of some nerve cells. That sheath forms an electrically insulating layer. Nerve impulses are electrical, so it would make sense that if you had a good myelin sheath, you'd have a healthier and faster functioning nervous system right? The myelin sheath is supposed to be quite thick and cushy.
Well a lot of people with OCD have a thinner myelin sheath. So this would also contribute to that blockage when info is trying to go from the eyes to the brain to confirm we see something or have done something. Some things that help build your myelin sheath are:
- B12
- Vitamins B5, B9, C, D, K2
- Biotin
- Fish/DHA Oils
- Cholesterol
- Iron
- Copper
- Iodine
- Zinc
- Choline and lecithin
- Lithium
- Phosphatidylserine
Check out the dedicated page for this subject here: Checking
You will also find some good supplements you can get for helping checking behaviours on the dedicated page.
