Interested in views of fellow ocd sufferers.
I have ‘pure OCD’. My symptoms are often exacerbated during holidays away.
on one hand, experiencing new environments should potentially help mental ruminations in terms of the distraction value of different experiences. However, being away from home I guess can be de-stabilising.
I don’t want a life where my horizons become increasingly narrowed by this illness.
How do other fellow sufferers approach this issue?
Thanks
I think that's just OCD liking routine and sameness! Any alteration to your normal routine will have your OCD ramping up a gear.
It does have a habit of trying to limit what we do, narrowing down our horizons by chipping away at any attempt to break out of our routine, but there are things you can do to break down the restrictions.
Perhaps shake up your home and work routines a bit - do day-to-day tasks in a different order, such as your morning routine. Have something different for lunch each day, go to work or shops by a different route occasionally etc. There are lots of ways you can break out of set patterns.
Often routines set themselves because they're convenient. They become automatic so we don't have to give too much thought to routine tasks. This is all right for most people, but OCD can turn a convenient routine into a straitjacket.
I don't know these strategies would work with Pure O, but they might help. Perhaps one of the other problems with going on holiday with Pure O tagging along, apart from the newness of your surroundings, is that holidays usually mean leisure, and you can decide what you want to do. Then OCD steps in and fills the gap.
For this reason, perhaps avoid things like beach holidays, where you have little to do but to relax. Maybe a city break or guided tour would suit you better, so your holiday is filled with activities that crowd the OCD out.
I share your anxiety about holidays and OCD. I have found that I am fine going to visit people as long as I stay in a hotel and not in the home of friends/family. As long as I have that "neutral" space of the hotel room where I am not surrounded at all times by the living patterns of other people, then I do pretty well. I simply tell the people that I am visiting that part of my holiday is about spending "some time alone." After people get over the need to keep extending the offer of a room, they're fine with the arrangement. It's actually better for everyone because then you can make definite plans for meals and outings, but there's no issue with overstaying one's visit. If I stay with people, my brain gets quickly "locked" into the routine of the household and I end up exhausted from fending off the danger of entering into different OCD patterns.
I also second the vote for visiting busy cities with lots of stuff going on. There's nothing worse for my OCD than staying somewhere isolated and beautiful. Being alone with my mind is agonizing. Cities are actually relaxing because I can be anonymous and not feel like I have to make continual small talk with the very few people that are around in quiet places.
I have done a few "City Stay" trips to various world cities (lots of travel companies offer them now) and enjoyed them much more than trips that move continually around a state or country. Packing and unpacking luggage continually is triggering for me, as well as continual new hotel rooms. Staying in the same hotel for a week or two is perfect. Usually there are some optional day trips to surrounding sites, or you can wander on your own or with people on the same tour. The city stay tours are quite relaxed in that way, and you don't have to deal with sitting next to strangers and making small talk for daily bus rides to the next location. It's worth it to me to pay the extra "single supplement" fee for my own hotel room. Then my brain doesn't have to deal with the stress of sharing a space with someone whose routine is going to irritate me in some way.
I have found that the hardest part of traveling with OCD is the anxiety leading up to the departure. A few times I have made snap decisions and gone away with only a couple day's notice. Those have worked the best because I can't ruminate about all the possible bad outcomes for weeks in advance. Once the plane takes off or after I've started to drive the car, then my brain gets distracted by the newness of everything and feels free for awhile.
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