Challenge Yourself

Thanksgiving is a good time to challenge yourself to do things you haven’t done in a while. Or ever! When my OCD was at its worst, I wasn’t doing any entertaining because of my fear of contamination. It was such a struggle to get through cooking a meal for someone other than my husband and son that I just gave up.

I loved making cookies for my son and husband and I to take to school and work every holiday and I even gave that up. I had my husband make simple dishes when we needed to take something to a potluck.

Gradually, I challenged myself to prepare potluck dishes myself. First, I helped my husband rather than just giving strict clean instructions and worked my way up to making dishes myself. We can both see the humor in some of my demands: Don’t touch this or that; Did you wash your hands? Did I touch that? What if I did? One time, after I had finally gotten to the point of putting together a dish myself, I threw out two sets of pickles and olives before I finally got it right.

Years ago, I went to an OCD support group. I took cookies I had baked. That was my challenge. Another woman’s challenge was eating food she considered possibly contaminated. What to do? She touched the floor with a cookie and ate it!

Those days seem like a lifetime away. Today, I entertain. We have people over for dinner. I prepare food for others. The fears have vanished. I applied exposure and response prevention to my fears. And I prayed and gave my fears to God. With time, I reached a point where I felt comfortable with the risks. The rewards of fellowship with friends, helping others, having a festive atmosphere created by shared meals, etc – all this made the risks seem fewer.

How will you challenge your OCD this Thanksgiving?