Breaking Free

We spend our winters in Texas, in brush country south of San Antonio. We have a cottage surrounded by prairie and mesquite trees we call "Quail Haven" because we've seen quail on our property and we're trying to attract more quail by planting more native grasses and wildflowers they like. Last week we went birding down in the Rio Grande Valley and saw lots of birds we hadn't seen before. I'll share some pictures another time.

I also love spotting butterflies and getting their pictures. I can relate to butterflies, maybe because they've broken free from their cocoons, just as I've broken free from my OCD. That correlation started back in 1996 when my son first made my website -- CherryPedrick.com. He was only 14 at the time, by the way. He asked me for ideas for the website and I said butterflies. And cats. Okay, cats have nothing to do with OCD, I just love cats. With only that to go on he created a great website. Here is a pipevine swallowtail from our birding trip.

Breaking Free

In the last few years I haven’t had a presence on the Internet. No blog. My website hasn’t been updated. I haven’t been on OCD email lists. Why? It has to do with how I identify myself.
As a Christian I’ve always, first of all, found my identity in Christ, as a child of God. This sustained me through my struggle with obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD). In 1994, I was diagnosed with OCD. I still identified myself as a Christian and as a wife, mother and nurse, but more and more I identified myself as a person with OCD.

The first book I coauthored was titled The OCD Workbook, Your Guide to Breaking Free from Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder and I considered myself to be breaking free. When Bruce Hyman and I revised it in 2005 I identified less with OCD because it was taking up so little of my life. Now, as we’re completing the third edition of The OCD Workbook, I can say I have broken free. Not cured – there is no cure and I must be vigilant. But free of the grip OCD once had on my life.

Now, instead of withdrawing from being identified with OCD, I’m more willing to embrace it. With this blog I want to celebrate breaking free and give people hope that they too can break free.