As many people increasingly focus on the environment, they’re finding that what’s better for their life. That great that you are going green. You switch your lifestyle to organic food and taught the kids how to compost. But are you be Obsessed With Being sustainability? You eliminate every possible chemical from lives, trying to force everyone around you and the kids to eat vegetarian, even making us give up our cell phones! How can you address this issue?
What is obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD)?
According to Beyond OCD, OCD is diagnosed when:
- Obsessions and compulsions consume excessive amounts of time (an hour or more each day)
- Cause significant distress
- Interfere with daily functioning on normal routines, or at work/school, or with social activities, or family relationships.
OCD is characterized by obsessive thoughts, impulses, or images and compulsions (overt or mental rituals) that are difficult to suppress and take a considerable amount of time and energy away from living your life, enjoying your family and friends or even doing your job or schoolwork.
OCD Symptoms
Obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) usually includes both obsessions and compulsions. But it’s also possible to have only obsession symptoms or only compulsion symptoms.
Obsession symptoms
OCD obsessions are repeated, persistent and unwanted thoughts, or images that are intrusive when you’re trying to think of or do other things. It causes distress or anxiety for you. To ignore them, you might perform a compulsive behavior.
Obsessions often have themes to them, such as:
- Fear of contamination or dirt (E.g. fear of being contaminated by touching objects)
- Needing things orderly and symmetrical ( E.g. stress when objects aren’t orderly)
- Having difficulty tolerating uncertainty ( E.g. doubts that you’ve locked the door)
- Unwanted thoughts ( E.g. thoughts about shouting obscenities or unpleasant sexual images)
Compulsion Symptoms
OCD compulsions are repetitive behaviors that you feel driven to perform to get rid of obsessions. However, engaging in compulsions that may offer only temporary relief from anxiety.
You may make up rules or rituals to follow that help reduce your anxiety. But these compulsions are excessive and often are not realistically related to their real problem.
Compulsions typically have themes like obsessions, such as:
- Washing and cleaning
- Orderliness
- Checking
- Following a strict routine
- Counting
- Demanding reassurance
OCD Symptoms usually begin gradually and tend to vary in severity throughout life. The types of obsessions and compulsions you undergo can also change over time. OCD is usually considered a lifelong disorder, can have mild to moderate symptoms or be so severe. If your obsessions and compulsions are affecting your quality of life, consult your doctor or mental health professional.
Obsessive-Compulsive Sustainability Disorder (OCSD)
You are an environmentalist empowering and spending most of your time working with it, once you want to go back to normal life but have many fleeting fantasies. Because once you start understanding the innumerable ways that human beings are destroying this planet, it’s very hard not to become obsessed.
And it’s a fine line between passion and obsession when it comes to the environment. You act like the only one struggling with finding the balance. But to be so consumed by issues that you fail to realize your rude behavior? Well, that’s crossing over into obsessive-compulsive sustainability disorder (OCSD) territory.
Are You Eco-Obsessed?
Of course, many people are doing what we’ve all been told to do since we started to hear about environmental problems such as global warming, over-crowded landfills, and the erosion of our eco-systems over the last several decades. And their efforts are selfless and laudable. Our planet would certainly be a lot healthier if there were more such people around to take care of it.
And while those may be greener than most, others go even further. They are driven by anxiety to reduce, reuse, and recycle, or feeling stressed out about not doing enough for the environment. That’s an unhealthy green way that affects negatively their life.
Signs of Green Obsession
You might be going too far in your efforts to save the planet if:
- Family members, close friends are questioning your eco-friendly practices.
- Your green ways spend to much time and make it harder to attend to daily activities. You do not have enough time to take care of yourself or your home or engage with friends or family.
- You no longer enjoy the things you used to and try to get rid of them.
You experience significant changes in your sleeping and eating habits. - You feel like you can’t live as your own expectations.
The extreme green behaviors aren’t healthy or sustainable. It might make people experience green overdosing and burnout themself.
How to Get Over OCSD?
Consult Doctor
If you are experiencing anxiety related to green living, asking advice from a mental health professional can help you find a healthier balance in your life.
Ask Yourself
If you are just starting to tip over into obsessive territory, self-help may be an option. When you have thoughts that you have to do specific things to reduce the anxiety, catch that thought and ASK YOURSELF whether doing that thing is worth the potential consequences.
For example, your daughter wants to shop for back-to-school clothes, but this doesn’t jibe with your green ethics. You should ask yourself, “Is it worth not engaging in consumerism to be eco-friendly at the price of hurting my relationship with my kids?
Change your Habits
Change your habits if you feel like you’re becoming obsessive. For instance, you might include not removing a can from a public garbage can to bring it home to recycle, or driving to a store because you’re tired or the weather is bad, even though it’s within walking distance… This will generate distress, but you will ultimately have less anxiety when you realize that nothing bad has happened.
Conclusion
Not only sustainability makes you happier, but it could also make more of a difference to the planet. We can make a greater change if we all make small changes. In relaxing your obsessive, you may open the door for other people to make positive changes in their own lives. That might a good chance for you to finally find a way to meaningfully channel your obsessive green energies.