I am thankful for my OCD.
A therapist once told me she did not think anyone could get through medical school without some degree of obsessive-compulsive disorder.
That made me think - and start to reframe. Maybe this was a blessing?
I have very mild OCD. I do not know what I would do or how I would feel if I had more severe symptoms - that seems to me as though it would be an ongoing, heartbreaking struggle.
It can be bothersome to me and others to cope even with my mild OCD. But I have learned over many years to harness and direct it. I wanted to learn how to communicate with clients better. I found the best book I could and read it twice. I will most likely do that with the second book as well. There are also conferences. And veterinary specific resources. And books referenced in the first book.
Skills for Communicating with Patients - great book!
Everything I want to learn about veterinary medicine - or other things in life - even now I obsess over and focus on until I have completely overdone it. OCD is why I can write a daily blog. It is why I can read every issue of JAVMA (Journal of the American Veterinary Medical Association) and every other journal I receive without getting bored.
It is why I have brought the communications book home this past weekend to read a third time.
It is why I cry every time I see the Scrubs episode in which Michael J. Fox plays a doctor with severe OCD. I empathize, but I also think "There but for the grace of God go I." I have it so easy compared to so many.
I am thankful.