Goodbye OCD! (video)

For the last few weeks, I have invited readers to say goodbye to their problems in my post Dear Fear: A "Dear John" Letter To Anxiety. I shared one reader's letter to fear last week: "Fear, You Are Not Welcome Here!"

Today, I am sharing a Goodbye letter from another one of my readers. Ken from Redeker's Travels wrote a Goodbye Letter to his OCD. His powerful words remind us that we can all change our relationship to our fears. Here, I read Goodbye OCD for you on video. Please watch.

Here is the transcript of Ken's letter.

Goodbye OCD,

Dear OCD,

I will no longer let you bully me. This has gone on way too long. You started taunting me when I was only 14, and you are still here 38 years later. You made me listen to you when I was in high school, and I believed what you said. You told me to check things over and over, and I did. You promised it would get rid of the anxiety. But my anxiety only went away for a short time, and you guaranteed if I checked just one more time it would really go away. Well I kept checking, and you kept shouting at me that just one more time would be the last time, and I would be happy again.

Well, you tricked me. As a result, I ended up in the hospital four times before I was an adult. You are cunning and devious, and a liar. I told myself that I will never let you do that to me again. However, you kept trying, but I never let you push me that far again. You have come painfully close to shoving me off that cliff into that dark abyss many times, but I won’t let you. You are like a leach on my shoulder that whispers lies into my ear, and always promising to remove my anxiety if I just check one more time. But you have never once delivered on your endless promises.

For two decades you robbed me of a social life. You made it so I couldn’t finish college. You told me I will never have a girlfriend, a wife, or a family. But I have proven you wrong on the girlfriend, and I’ve got a wonderful social life now, and I will never let you take those precious things from me again.
However, I know that you will never truly leave, but I don’t have to listen to you. I can decide not to believe you. I no longer fear you, because I have discovered what renders you powerless. I know your weakness.

Twenty years ago, I began exploring caves. Caving destroyed you. You were not able to compete with the thrill of exploring extraordinary underground worlds. For the first time I was free from your painful control. Then I quit drinking seventeen years ago and I robbed you of your precious fuel that ignited my OCD like a flame on gasoline. After I gave up alcohol, I got an OCD therapist, and she taught me the power of ignoring you. Yet you still returned and sometimes struck me terribly hard, and each time you knocked me down I stood up again ready to fight and I grew stronger. I was no longer afraid to tell my friends about you, and they wanted to help me defeat you.

I no longer stand alone against you. I have allies. I have an army, and you will never invade my mind again.

Ken

Join us in writing a goodbye letter to your problems. Your turn, send me your letters!

By Jodi Lobozzo Aman

I blog here: Heal Now and Forever Be In Peace
and here: Anxiety-Schmanxiety Blog,
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