According to the Diagnostic and Statistic Manual Volume 4(DSM 1V), "obsessions are persistent ideas, thoughts, impulses or images that are experienced as intrusive and inappropriate." To give you an example, it’s like having a song you recently heard go through your head continually even though you want it to stop.
I read recently that one of the driving forces of the compulsions is constant doubt. Which got me thinking, you know? I’m not a complainer. Not aloud, anyway. I complain to myself, which is bad enough. I guess it’s fine sometimes to have doubts about yourself. But I do it too often, and now I wonder if I suffer from this Obsessive Compulsive Disorder thing.
While agonizing on the last chapters of my second novel (and then the process of editing, of course), I tend to criticize and compare myself to other writers. I’m not as good. And to demonstrate it, I’m not published yet. I feel as if I’m frozen in place because it has taken me forever to finish my second book. And while cultivating the plagued-by-doubt-syndrome, I procrastinate, find excuses to do anything but write.
A recent publication on Mother Teresa titled, "Mother Teresa: Come Be My Light", is a compilation of letters written by her over a 60 year period. They show that for a few weeks in 1959, Mother Teresa never once felt the presence of Jesus and often plagued by doubt about the existence of God.
So maybe there’s still hope for me.
I read recently that one of the driving forces of the compulsions is constant doubt. Which got me thinking, you know? I’m not a complainer. Not aloud, anyway. I complain to myself, which is bad enough. I guess it’s fine sometimes to have doubts about yourself. But I do it too often, and now I wonder if I suffer from this Obsessive Compulsive Disorder thing.
While agonizing on the last chapters of my second novel (and then the process of editing, of course), I tend to criticize and compare myself to other writers. I’m not as good. And to demonstrate it, I’m not published yet. I feel as if I’m frozen in place because it has taken me forever to finish my second book. And while cultivating the plagued-by-doubt-syndrome, I procrastinate, find excuses to do anything but write.
A recent publication on Mother Teresa titled, "Mother Teresa: Come Be My Light", is a compilation of letters written by her over a 60 year period. They show that for a few weeks in 1959, Mother Teresa never once felt the presence of Jesus and often plagued by doubt about the existence of God.
So maybe there’s still hope for me.
