Thank you, Helen! And of course, I have you to thank for learning how to loosen up with drawing—those quick warm-up exercises have been transformative for my practice!
Oh, I'm interesting in hearing more about what you said about 'OCD rounding out time anxiety' for you! I have OCD and am not usually stressed about time/ I plan too much and change plans without worry. And my partner has ADHD and he's very worried about time and sticking to plans all the time!
Thanks for reading, Annie! I think what I meant is that ADHD gives me the initial time anxiety—I’m hesitant to get into anything in case I end up forgetting to get to the next thing I’m supposed to be at (I think this is a form of “masking”—and being willing and okay with being late to things would be unmasking). The OCD aspect is that I also can’t decide *what* to do because I’m afraid of making the wrong choice. In what ways are you able to support your partner with their time anxiety?
Lisa, thank you for sharing more about your experience with OCD and time anxiety. I love how you adapted the worry later alarm to focus on choosing/doing something NOW with a set time to worry later. And what a success that you didn’t even have to set the timer after you got on a roll! Excited to see where this journey takes you!
Hi Lisa, It was very interesting to read your article - there's definitely lots of ways in which OCD and ADHD can overlap, and it takes real effort and practice to be able to tell the difference and apply the healthy coping mechanism or technique.
I also read Annie's note below, and tend to agree, based on my experience and some of others' around me with OCD and/or ADHD, that this time anxiety thing, in the way that you describe it here, seems to show up more in ADHD or GAD rather than in OCD. To me time anxiety has showed up in OCD but merely linked to existential OCD, analysis of the time I might have potentially spent on engaging aka cheating on my husband for my ROCD etc. I think you get the gist of the difference).
Which makes me think of the reason why the "anxiety worry time" might have worked for you, but has never worked for my OCD. In essence, I think any kind of anxiety can be treated via exposure. If we think a bit more about the worry time and the fact that you decided to do it later, that is to delay a compulsion in OCD. So, in the end it's still a technique to beat OCD. But if I did that when my OCD was loud, and I was really coming later to do my worry time, I'd be deep down the rabbit hole more and more.
Have you considered that the time anxiety and the fear of making mistakes are more related to perfectionism/high achievement traits rather than OCD?
Deciding what to do is harder than the thing. Love this, Lisa!!
Thank you, Helen! And of course, I have you to thank for learning how to loosen up with drawing—those quick warm-up exercises have been transformative for my practice!
Oh, I'm interesting in hearing more about what you said about 'OCD rounding out time anxiety' for you! I have OCD and am not usually stressed about time/ I plan too much and change plans without worry. And my partner has ADHD and he's very worried about time and sticking to plans all the time!
Thanks for reading, Annie! I think what I meant is that ADHD gives me the initial time anxiety—I’m hesitant to get into anything in case I end up forgetting to get to the next thing I’m supposed to be at (I think this is a form of “masking”—and being willing and okay with being late to things would be unmasking). The OCD aspect is that I also can’t decide *what* to do because I’m afraid of making the wrong choice. In what ways are you able to support your partner with their time anxiety?
Lisa, thank you for sharing more about your experience with OCD and time anxiety. I love how you adapted the worry later alarm to focus on choosing/doing something NOW with a set time to worry later. And what a success that you didn’t even have to set the timer after you got on a roll! Excited to see where this journey takes you!
Thank you so much, Aly!
Hi Lisa, It was very interesting to read your article - there's definitely lots of ways in which OCD and ADHD can overlap, and it takes real effort and practice to be able to tell the difference and apply the healthy coping mechanism or technique.
I also read Annie's note below, and tend to agree, based on my experience and some of others' around me with OCD and/or ADHD, that this time anxiety thing, in the way that you describe it here, seems to show up more in ADHD or GAD rather than in OCD. To me time anxiety has showed up in OCD but merely linked to existential OCD, analysis of the time I might have potentially spent on engaging aka cheating on my husband for my ROCD etc. I think you get the gist of the difference).
Which makes me think of the reason why the "anxiety worry time" might have worked for you, but has never worked for my OCD. In essence, I think any kind of anxiety can be treated via exposure. If we think a bit more about the worry time and the fact that you decided to do it later, that is to delay a compulsion in OCD. So, in the end it's still a technique to beat OCD. But if I did that when my OCD was loud, and I was really coming later to do my worry time, I'd be deep down the rabbit hole more and more.
Have you considered that the time anxiety and the fear of making mistakes are more related to perfectionism/high achievement traits rather than OCD?