Good/ Bad Habit or It’s OCD? #BlogchatterBlogHop

#MentalAwareness #OCD #SelfImprovement

What is a Habit?

Habit is a task you do daily without thinking about it. You become so habitual if doing the task that it’s difficult to stop. It’s like a ritual.

Dictionary definition:

Habit (noun)

1. Something that you do often and almost without thinking, especially something that is hard to stop doing
2. Usual behavior

What makes a habit bad or good?

Any habit that is causing emotional or bodily harm to self or others could be considered a bad habit.

I’m a late riser which makes me late for work I even forget important things in the morning because I’m always in hurry to reach work on time. Just to compensate for this bad habit although I have developed a good habit of keeping things organized and in place. In turn, my house and workspace are organized and everything is arranged accordingly. I’m even bordering towards “Obsessive Compulsive Disorder/ OCD”.

What is OCD?

It is a behavioral disorder. A person finds comfort in some habit and is repeating it consciously or subconsciously.

²Obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) is a common, chronic, and long-lasting disorder in which a person has uncontrollable, reoccurring thoughts (“obsessions“) and/or behaviors (“compulsions“) that he or she feels the urge to repeat over and over.

The most common OCDs are:

³OCD comes in many forms, but most cases fall into at least one of four general categories:

• Checking: such as locks, alarm systems, ovens, or light switches, or thinking you have a medical condition.
• Contamination: fear of things that might be dirty, or a compulsion to clean. Mental contamination involves feeling like you’ve been treated like dirt.
• Symmetry and ordering: the need to have things lined up in a certain way
• Ruminations and intrusive thoughts: an obsession with a line of thought. Some of these thoughts might be violent or disturbing.

Treatment of OCD:

^1,4 There are a few treatment options for OCD:

• Cognitive Behavioural Therapy
• Meditation
• Psychotherapy
• Neuromodulation
• Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation

Is it possible to change your habits?

It’s difficult and requires a lot of effort and dedication to develop or change a habit. It’s conditioning your mind to adapt or leave something. Following a similar task or routine for 20 days would be the first step to forming or changing a habit.

I’ve been struggling for years to change my habit of being a “late riser” I’m a defaulter to the core. I’ve adopted a new way of changing my alarm time 5 minutes earlier every week to bring the change slowly and steadily. I give my brain to adapt to the 5 minutes since I’m not able to deal with a sudden change of ½ hour or 1 hour instantly. I feel tired the whole day even when it’s just ½ hour or a change in schedule.

I’m betting on the tortoise instead of the rabbit in my race to “Start waking up early”. Slow and Steady Wins the Race.

I hope my post was of some help to you. Be hooked on my blog for more interesting posts.  

Disclaimer:

This post is a part of Blogchatter Blog Hop & is for reference purposes only, under no circumstances it should be used as a replacement for medical opinion by Professionals. Any decision regarding health and health care should be taken after professional advice only. Health care advice and information shared by the author are best to her knowledge. We disclaim all responsibilities for any inadvertent omission/ commission by the author or the website.

Reference:

1. https://iocdf.org/about-ocd/
2. https://www.nimh.nih.gov/health/topics/obsessive-compulsive-disorder-ocd#:~:text=Obsessive%2Dcompulsive%20disorder%20(OCD),to%20repeat%20over%20and%20over.
3. https://www.webmd.com/mental-health/obsessive-compulsive-disorder
4. https://www.psychiatry.org/patients-families/obsessive-compulsive-disorder/what-is-obsessive-compulsive-disorder