Last week I wrote about Isaac and Sarah as examples of a particular resistance that shows up in people who present with anxiety problems, especially obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD). By contrast, as I mentioned last week, I came across this posting on LinkedIn written by a man who had identified his own tendency to become obsessive as a way to combat anxiety (a “phobia” as you’re read), and had confronted the problem head-on. You can see his posting here.
Notice he mentions the fancy name given his problem: “Nomophobia, which is defined as ‘the fear of being out of mobile phone contact’”. (Just what my field and the DSM need – another disorder!) But he did not dwell on programs to help his symptoms. He “just said no”. As I mentioned last week, it is of course not so easy for everyone to do this. Some people need more guidance and support as offered by a therapist or a structured program like AA and by certain programs tailored to OCD symptoms. But in all of us there is the tendency to resist, as we see in many examples such as here and here and here; you can find further discussion and case examples in this blog by clicking on the “resistance” category to the right and a little below the text you’re now reading. It has been my – and others’ – experience that in OCD resistance is often particularly strong. If you’re one of the anxiety sufferers, watch out for that resistance.