Existential OCD or a 'Deep Thinker'? How to Tell The Difference
Existential OCD is characterized by the preoccupation with philosophical questions related to life and existence. For example, someone with existential
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Existential OCD is characterized by the preoccupation with philosophical questions related to life and existence. For example, someone with existential OCD might experience intrusive thoughts centered on the meaning of life, the universe, and/or their human existence. They might experience frequent doubt about their perceptions of reality. Someone with existential OCD might also experience recurrent feelings of depersonalization and derealization, which only exacerbate their doubts about their experiences of reality. They might also frequently question the purpose of life.
As with other presentations of OCD, it is helpful to look beyond the content of the obsessions and consider more the relationship between their thoughts, feelings, and behaviors. Just as someone with religious scrupulosity might appear to be an extremely devout follower of their faith, someone with existential OCD might appear to be a “deep thinker.” In fact, there is a whole field devoted to figuring out the meaning of life, and yet, not every philosopher has existential OCD.
So, what’s the difference?
The meaning one makes of their thoughts, the urgent distress one feels because of their thoughts, and the behaviors that follow this distress, is what separates people with OCD from those with a genuine interest in existential inquiries.
Commonly, individuals with existential OCD experience an urgency to arrive at some sort of answer to these unanswerable questions. The lack of conclusion causes anguish for these individuals, which detracts from their ability to engage in their lives in a fulfilling and meaningful way. For example, while spending time with loved ones, these individuals might be stuck in a vortex of questioning if their loved ones are actually real. They might be questioning if they are actually present or if their perceptions of reality are wrong. Or, they might be trying to figure out what the meaning of these interactions are if there is no actual definitive meaning to life at all. These are just some examples of the way existential OCD might present in people’s lives.
This sort of anguished search for meaning is not to be confused with the sense of ruminative hopelessness and meaninglessness that is common among people with depression, nor is it the equivalent to the type of endless sense of worrying germane to Generalized Anxiety Disorder. What distinguishes existential obsessions from the aforementioned experiences is the presence of compulsions.
Common compulsions for individuals with existential OCD include mental checking/testing to gauge if one feels in touch with reality, ruminating in hopes that “this time” they will find the answers, and excessive research and reading of philosophical and scientifics texts. Conversely, some may engage in avoidance of anything related to this topic, such as movies about simulations and videos about the universe, space, or the meaning of life. Individuals with existential OCD commonly also seek reassurance from others by asking them for their answers to their obsessive questions or asking them how they perceive reality...
Unfortunately, as is common for many people with OCD, many individuals may end up in traditional talk therapy before they land in the right treatment...Even purely cognitive approaches, like the use of thought challenging and cognitive reframing, reinforce the idea that the individual in treatment sincerely needs to pay these thoughts any mind at all...
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"When I was first told about OCD, I was told that these thoughts are called intrusives. But I actually heard the word invasives for some reason. And that is what it's like for me. It's like there's an invasive weed that just spreads out of control. You know, it starts out with one little thought and then slowly that becomes the only thought that you're able to have, the thought that you're constantly either forced to have or trying desperately to distract yourself from."
~ John Green
~ John Green
According to terror management theory (TMT) neuroticism is primarily caused by insufficient anxiety buffers against unconscious death anxiety.[32] These buffers consist of:
- Cultural worldviews that impart life with a sense of enduring meaning, such as social continuity beyond one's death, future legacy and afterlife beliefs, and
- A sense of personal value, or the self-esteem in the cultural worldview context, an enduring sense of meaning.
While TMT agrees with standard evolutionary psychology accounts that the roots of neuroticism in Homo sapiens or its ancestors are likely in adaptive sensitivities to negative outcomes, it posits that once Homo sapiens achieved a higher level of self-awareness, neuroticism increased enormously, becoming largely a spandrel, a non-adaptive byproduct of our adaptive intelligence...
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“While caution is a useful instinct, we lose many opportunities and much of the adventure of life if we fail to support the curious explorer within us.”
“If you want resurrection, you must have crucifixion. The hoarder—the one in us that wants to keep, to hold on—must be killed.”
~ Joseph Campbell
“If you want resurrection, you must have crucifixion. The hoarder—the one in us that wants to keep, to hold on—must be killed.”
~ Joseph Campbell
Preliminary evidence of the effectiveness of acceptance and commitment therapy for death anxiety in Iranian clients diagnosed with obsessive-compulsive disorder - PubMed
The authors investigated the effectiveness of acceptance and commitment therapy (ACT) for the treatment of death anxiety and obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) with eight adult women in Iran. The ACT protocol was conducted in weekly solo sessions with each participant for 8 weeks (45 minutes...
pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov
The authors investigated the effectiveness of acceptance and commitment therapy (ACT) for the treatment of death anxiety and obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) with eight adult women in Iran. The ACT protocol was conducted in weekly solo sessions with each participant for 8 weeks (45 minutes each). The results were analyzed by visual analysis method and improvement percentage. ACT resulted in a 60%-80% decrease in death anxiety and a 51%-60% decrease in obsessive-compulsive symptoms, thereby indicating promise for ACT as a treatment for OCD and death anxiety.
“Because what if instead of a story told in consecutive order, life is a cacophony of moments we never leave? What if the most traumatic or the most beautiful experiences we have trap us in a kind of feedback loop, where at least some part of our minds remains obsessed, even as our bodies move on?”
“Someone had told her once that mothers existed to blunt the existential loneliness of being a person. If that was true then her biggest maternal responsibility was simply companionship. You bring a child into this fractious, chaotic world out of the heat of your womb, and then spend the next ten years walking beside them while they figure out how to be a person.”
“You need hope to form a thought. It takes--I don't know--optimism to speak, to engage in conversation. Because really, what's the point of all this communicating? What difference does it really make what we say to each other? Or what we do, for that matter?”
"And James was a believer in mystery. Not like his mum, who never met a phantasmagorical ideology she didn’t embrace instantly and completely, but in the manner of Albert Einstein, who once said, “Science without religion is lame. Religion without science is blind.”
― Noah Hawley, Before the Fall
“Someone had told her once that mothers existed to blunt the existential loneliness of being a person. If that was true then her biggest maternal responsibility was simply companionship. You bring a child into this fractious, chaotic world out of the heat of your womb, and then spend the next ten years walking beside them while they figure out how to be a person.”
“You need hope to form a thought. It takes--I don't know--optimism to speak, to engage in conversation. Because really, what's the point of all this communicating? What difference does it really make what we say to each other? Or what we do, for that matter?”
"And James was a believer in mystery. Not like his mum, who never met a phantasmagorical ideology she didn’t embrace instantly and completely, but in the manner of Albert Einstein, who once said, “Science without religion is lame. Religion without science is blind.”
― Noah Hawley, Before the Fall
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Existential Concerns in OCD with Aggressive and Sexual Obsessions
Previous research has highlighted the potential role of existential concerns (ECs) in Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder (OCD). However, empirical research has thus far only demonstrated the role of one existential issue in this disorder: namely, death anxiety.
The present study explored the relationships between OCD symptoms and five ECs: Death anxiety, meaninglessness, isolation, identity, and guilt. In particular, the associations between these concerns and sexual and aggressive obsessions were examined...
As hypothesised, death anxiety was significantly associated with aggressive obsessions, but not with sexual obsessions.
Previous research has highlighted the potential role of existential concerns (ECs) in Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder (OCD). However, empirical research has thus far only demonstrated the role of one existential issue in this disorder: namely, death anxiety.
The present study explored the relationships between OCD symptoms and five ECs: Death anxiety, meaninglessness, isolation, identity, and guilt. In particular, the associations between these concerns and sexual and aggressive obsessions were examined...
As hypothesised, death anxiety was significantly associated with aggressive obsessions, but not with sexual obsessions.
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On a lighter note:
"The deeper the understanding and acceptance of the inner life, the less the intensity of depersonalization."
~ Elena Bezzubova
Existential rage is an untenable, despairing, and acute flooding of one's inner defenses in response to feeling a lack of ontological status, meaninglessness to life, or lack of agency, signifying intense upset and displeasure with these or related existential concerns in one's life.
Angst is often thought to refer merely to fear or anxiety. Interestingly “Angst” comes from the German root “angust” which is also the term for anger. This implies that anxiety and anger both compose the duality of emotions related to death.
We may even feel guilty of having found ourselves in a position where our own values or safety are under threat. What did we do that another would need to threaten or attack us? Avoidant behaviour will seem a safer bet.
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"It has been argued that for many great artists, their keener vision of the existential dilemma of the human condition was the cause of their creative efforts. These efforts in turn may have served them as a form of therapy."
“We might say that both the artist and the neurotic bite off more than they can chew, but the artist spews it back out again and chews it over in an objectified way, as an external, active work project.”
"As long as man is an ambiguous creature he can never banish anxiety; what he can do instead is to use anxiety as an eternal spring for growth into new dimensions of thought and trust. Faith poses a new life task, the adventure in openness to a multi-dimensional reality.”
“The most that any one of us can seem to do is to fashion something--an object or ourselves--and drop it into the confusion, make an offering of it, so to speak, to the life force.”
“Modern man tries to replace vital awe and wonder with a “How to do it” manual.”
“If there is tragic limitation in life there is also possibility. What we call maturity is the ability to see the two in some kind of balance into which we can fit creatively.”
“Beyond a given point man is not helped by more “knowing,” but only by living and doing in a partly self-forgetful way. As Goethe put it, we must plunge into experience and then reflect on the meaning of it. All reflection and no plunging drives us mad; all plunging and no reflection, and we are brutes.”
“When people do not have self-esteem they cannot act, they break down.”
― Ernest Becker, The Denial of Death (1973)
"As long as man is an ambiguous creature he can never banish anxiety; what he can do instead is to use anxiety as an eternal spring for growth into new dimensions of thought and trust. Faith poses a new life task, the adventure in openness to a multi-dimensional reality.”
“The most that any one of us can seem to do is to fashion something--an object or ourselves--and drop it into the confusion, make an offering of it, so to speak, to the life force.”
“Modern man tries to replace vital awe and wonder with a “How to do it” manual.”
“If there is tragic limitation in life there is also possibility. What we call maturity is the ability to see the two in some kind of balance into which we can fit creatively.”
“Beyond a given point man is not helped by more “knowing,” but only by living and doing in a partly self-forgetful way. As Goethe put it, we must plunge into experience and then reflect on the meaning of it. All reflection and no plunging drives us mad; all plunging and no reflection, and we are brutes.”
“When people do not have self-esteem they cannot act, they break down.”
― Ernest Becker, The Denial of Death (1973)
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Existential OCD • California OCD And Anxiety Treatment Center
Existential OCD is a subtype of Obsessive Compulsive Disorder that deals with abstract, philosophical, or otherwise intangible issues. Click to read more.
calocd.com
ACT helps OCD sufferers build their ability to recognize the existential thoughts and obsessions as being optional thought experiments that do not have to overtake their life. The obsessions do they have to be answered immediately, if ever. ACT calls this Defusion, meaning not-fusing with the thought as if the outcome of the thought and the person’s very existence were one and the same. This doesn’t mean ignoring them, or suppressing them, but acknowledging them as part of the present moment’s thought that will eventually be replaced by another thought.
Letting Go, Creating Meaning: The Role of Acceptance and Commitment Therapy in Helping People Confront Existential Concerns and Lead a Vital Life
We all must confront existential crises such as sickness, death of loved ones, loss of job, mistreatment from others, and relationship breakdown. These crises can shatter our sense of meaning. How can we face that moment with honesty and courage, embrace the...
link.springer.com
We all must confront existential crises such as sickness, death of loved ones, loss of job, mistreatment from others, and relationship breakdown. These crises can shatter our sense of meaning. How can we face that moment with honesty and courage, embrace the distress, and create new meaning?
This chapter provides a theory of how language and self-awareness can lead us into existential crisis and loss of meaning. It then provides an evidence-based account of how the DNA-V model of Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT) can help people to answer “Yes” to Camus’ most important philosophical question, “Is life worth living?”.
ACT can help people recreate coherence after a coherence-shattering event, overcome alienation from the body, overcome inertia, overcome a sense of self that is self-destroying or feels “empty,” and bridge the gulf between self and others and create genuine connection.
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"Once you realize that change and control are incompatible, you are set free."
In What Makes You Stronger, you’ll learn to apply the authors’ proven-effective DNA-v model (Discoverer, Noticer, Advisor, Value, and Vitality)—a potent blend of acceptance and commitment therapy (ACT), mindfulness, and positive psychology to gain resilience in the face of change. Using this simple six-step process, you’ll not only cope with change and adversity—but grow stronger from it! You’ll discover strategies for managing uncertainty, breaking unhealthy behavior patterns, and reducing overwhelm when things start to feel out of control.
If you’re ready to stop running from change, and start living a life guided by your values, this powerful guide will be with you, every step of the way.
DNA-v: A Simple 6-Step Process to Positive Change
- The Broaden and Build Process – Learn to create, think, play, and explore in a way that builds value and joy
- Mindfulness and Attention Process – Pause and respond to feelings, rather than reacting impulsively
- The Cognitive Process – Disengage from negative self-talk
- The Values-Based Process – Clarify your values to create a meaningful life
- The Self-View Process – Let go of your ego and see your potential rather than your limitations
- The Social-View Process – Build genuine connections, manage difficult people, and forge strong social relationships
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This Mortal Coil
I don’t think it’s an overstatement to say that almost everybody on earth is currently more aware than usual that they’re going to die. . . . People are becoming more racist, xenophobic, and willing to engage in hate crimes than they were in the recent past, for example. But being reminded that...
www.thesunmagazine.org
...Recent studies have shown that genuine humility — not just self-deprecation — appears to buffer death anxiety as much as self-esteem...
"A humble person is first and foremost capable of tolerating an honest look at the self and nondefensively accepting weaknesses alongside strengths. This does not represent a sense of inferiority or self-denigration, but rather a lack of self-aggrandizing biases. The propensity for seeing the self in true perspective is typically accompanied by an awareness of the self’s smallness in the grand scheme of things." ~ Pelin Kesebir
She goes on to say that humble people are more sensitive. They feel more connected. They can direct their attention to something beyond themselves.
As I’ve gotten older, I’ve become enthused about viewing myself as radically inconsequential. After all, I am a respiring piece of carbon-based meat, born in a time and place not of my choosing, here for an infinitesimal amount of time before I will be summarily obliterated and my atoms redistributed. I find that self-image ironically uplifting at this point in my life. I can be proud of becoming a psychologist and writing some books, but I’m no less enthusiastic about getting a lungful of fresh air on a beautiful day or taking the dog for a lap around the block.
I think humility is going to play a big role in psychology moving forward, as will gratitude. Everyone who slept in a bed last night and had breakfast this morning has something to be grateful for. Philosophers and theologians have long emphasized the value of gratitude, and this is now buttressed by research. When we ask people to think about a time in their life when they have felt grateful, it diminishes unconscious thoughts of death. There’s a lot more work that needs to be done in this domain, but I find it to be one of the most uplifting directions of our research. Be humble. Be grateful. It’s good for you. It’s good for the world.
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The Quiet Ego Scale: Measuring the Compassionate Self-Identity - Journal of Happiness Studies
The quiet ego refers to a self-identity that transcends egoism and identifies with a less defensive, balanced stance toward the self and others. Study 1 establishes and confirms the 14-item Quiet Ego Scale (QES) as a higher-order latent factor (capturing the theoretical intersection of four...
link.springer.com
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Regarding existential anxiety, a related concept is "self-impermanence anxiety," a term by biologist Lonnie W. Aarssen.
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Rethinking Madness
As the research continues to accumulate, we find that the mainstream understanding of schizophrenia and the other related psychotic disorders has lost virtually all credibility. We've learned that full recovery is not only possible, but may actually be the most common outcome given the right...
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Regarding Kirk Schneider (mentioned above with his theory of constriction vs. expansion), two of his books:
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Why do so many of us develop extremist psychological patterns, from withdrawal to aggression, friendship to enmity? Why do people vicariously live out their extremes through the actions of others? What can we do to transform these extremes in order to live vital and creative lives?
Drawing on the vast literature of existential psychology, Dr. Schneider develops what he calls the paradox principle, based on the assumptions that human experience spans a continuum from constriction to expansion. The former is characterized by the capacity to yield and focus, the latter by the capacity to assert and incorporate. People become dysfunctional, polarized, or excessive, says Schneider, when they fear either of these capacities.
After applying his model to a variety of dysfunctional syndromes, Schneider goes on to depict its relevance for psychological health. He ties his model directly to subjects' personal histories and shows its pertinence to creativity, physical health, religious and social organizations, child rearing, and psychology.
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The aim of the book is to revive a sense of awe—the humility and wonder, thrill and anxiety, splendor and mystery of living—in self, society, and spirit. It is an attempt to revive the capacity to be moved. Rediscovery of Awe promotes a new relation to life, and illustrates this relation over a broad range: from child-raising to education to the workplace, and from religion to politics and ethics. Set against our awe-deprived times, in which we tend to favor either a high tech, consumerist mentality or, contrastingly, a dogmatic, fundamentalist orientation, it presents a dynamic and rejuvenating alternative.
Amazon product
Why do so many of us develop extremist psychological patterns, from withdrawal to aggression, friendship to enmity? Why do people vicariously live out their extremes through the actions of others? What can we do to transform these extremes in order to live vital and creative lives?
Drawing on the vast literature of existential psychology, Dr. Schneider develops what he calls the paradox principle, based on the assumptions that human experience spans a continuum from constriction to expansion. The former is characterized by the capacity to yield and focus, the latter by the capacity to assert and incorporate. People become dysfunctional, polarized, or excessive, says Schneider, when they fear either of these capacities.
After applying his model to a variety of dysfunctional syndromes, Schneider goes on to depict its relevance for psychological health. He ties his model directly to subjects' personal histories and shows its pertinence to creativity, physical health, religious and social organizations, child rearing, and psychology.
Amazon product
The aim of the book is to revive a sense of awe—the humility and wonder, thrill and anxiety, splendor and mystery of living—in self, society, and spirit. It is an attempt to revive the capacity to be moved. Rediscovery of Awe promotes a new relation to life, and illustrates this relation over a broad range: from child-raising to education to the workplace, and from religion to politics and ethics. Set against our awe-deprived times, in which we tend to favor either a high tech, consumerist mentality or, contrastingly, a dogmatic, fundamentalist orientation, it presents a dynamic and rejuvenating alternative.
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