Existential OCD - Or Is It?

"Existential OCD is a designated sub-type of OCD. It describes a disabling preoccupation with philosophical questions in a fruitless search for certainty. Sometimes it may be seized on as a catch-all explanation for distress. In such cases, it is more helpful to look at what is driving it."

"Christina sparkles with enthusiasm for life. She is 27, working in a new job in a graphic design firm, which she loves. She loves her team. She loves the creativity that permeates the office, and she loves sparking and sharing ideas with those around her. She uses the word “love” a lot. But all is not well because not everyone on the team is as enthusiastic as she is, and she suspects some resent her and gossip about her."

"She is terrified of being excluded because it has happened to her before - being cut out of friendship groups. Gravely she tells me that she has had periods of severe depression - and long periods of therapy - since the age of nine. That was when children she thought were friends were horrid to her at school. She became a people pleaser, as she termed it, desperate for acceptance, and yet the same thing happened again when she was 15 and girls in her friendship group rejected her, seemingly overnight."

"Researchers at the University of British Columbia found that in adolescence (a time when opinions within peer groups become more influential than those of family) the most toxic challenge to sense of status is being ostracised or rejected by a group that one thought accepted them. This kind of rejection is three times as likely to lead to depression as other highly negative life events, and can have lasting effects, if not addressed."

Existential OCD is a recognized subtype of OCD marked by disabling preoccupation with philosophical questions and a fruitless search for certainty. The label can sometimes be used as a catch-all explanation for distress. In those cases, focusing on underlying drivers is more helpful. Christina, 27, loves her job and team but fears exclusion because of past experiences of being ostracized at school. She reports severe depression and long periods of therapy since age nine, after friends treated her badly, and again at age fifteen when a friendship group rejected her seemingly overnight. Research links adolescent group rejection with higher risk of depression and lasting effects if not addressed.

Read at Psychology Today