Lost and found creativity

Utilizing ERP with a therapist to manage OCD gave me something back that I didn’t know I lost… Creativity has always been a strength of mine. OCD, however, really flipped my use of creativity to the less fruitful side of the coin, when it comes to imagining obsessions and what-ifs creatively. All people I know with OCD are extraordinarily creative; just think of some of our fears and obsessions. If you remove the guilt and shame of obsessions, you’ll find this crazy amazing ability to create elaborate things from something sh*tty or nothing at all. Using ERP allowed me to expend less creative energy on obsessions and more on projects I want to use it on. It helped me live a more values driven life, as cliche as that may sound. It didn’t eliminate OCD, but honestly even if it had, that probably wouldn’t have fixed my life in the perfectionist way I’d like. Working on ERP to let myself live better was great. I now do a lot of hobbies I wouldn’t have had the mental energy for prior to treatment: woodworking, sewing, ceramics, singing, comedy and more. I can pour so much of my creativity and zealous energy into these different hobbies. You may think, wow that sounds insane that she has that much time for that many hobbies. Maybe. Or does it? OCD takes a lot of mental time/space/creativity. ERP will undoubtably not solve all of your problems and it won’t change everything, but it changes your mental energy/focus/ability, and in its own way, that really does change everything. Take heart that there are better (notice I did not say perfect) days ahead where channeling your creativity finally feels nontoxic and fulfilling.