I Have OCD—This Is What It’s Really Like

When Samantha Jean would bump into—or even brush past—her middle-school classmates, she would immediately feel dirty. As soon as she got home from school, Jean would shower, throw out any clothes that had come into contact with potential germs, and wash her hands until they were raw. That was 15 years ago in Buffalo, New York, but Jean—now 28—still battles these same fixations: She has obsessive-compulsive disorder, or OCD, and she’s never sure when some new bizarre belief will take over her brain.

With OCD, people can have unwanted and repeated thoughts and feelings that can lead to repetitive behaviors to help address or get rid of the obsessive thought. For Jean, her obsession was that everything is dirty; her compulsion was to wash and keep things clean. It wasn’t until then-13-year-old Jean’s parents took her to therapy that she was diagnosed with OCD and received treatment, including medication. Check out these 8 early signs of OCD to take seriously.

That’s when she started to understand what it means to live with the disorder. “I remember one of my therapists said you might not always be afraid of germs but [OCD] will always be there and it’ll come back in different ways,” Jean says. “The obsessions don’t always stay the same.”

The obsessions and compulsions aren’t always visible, either

One of the common misconceptions about OCD is that it exclusively relates to orderliness, cleaning, and perfectionism. But that’s not what Rose Cartwright, 32, experienced. Awful, debilitating, intrusive thoughts—a type of OCD that is sometimes called Pure O—exploded into Cartwright’s world when she was 15 years old. “It was this nightmarish level of anxiety from the get-go,” she says. “I didn’t understand where these thoughts were coming from; I thought the fact that I had these thoughts was evidence enough that I had done something terrible.”

Someone with Pure O experiences obsessive, unwanted ideas and performs compulsions or rituals as a result. David Austern, PsyD, clinical instructor of psychiatry at NYU Langone Health, notes that the term Pure O isn’t often used in the medical community anymore and could be a bit misleading. That’s mainly because treatment for Pure O and OCD is the same. One distinction for sufferers, though, is that with Pure O the compulsion and or ritual is a mental response that isn’t visible (unlike Jean’s hand washing).

Cartwright remembers taking the GCSE exams—standardized tests in England—a year later, at age 16, and thinking that these thoughts would never end. “I remember going into those exams and sitting in the exam hall and trying to do these tests and having intrusive thoughts every second that my pen was on the page, and thinking, ‘Is this my life now?’ because it had been literally a year of 24-7 thoughts,” she says. Learn these 8 surprising causes of OCD.

“I would wake up in the morning and have a few seconds where I forgot where I was or who I was, and then I would have my very first intrusive thought, and then I would have them all day every day until I went to bed at night,” Cartwright says.

As the years passed, her thoughts shifted to sexuality, about orientation and commitment. As a result, she avoided films with sexual content, physical contact with people, and social occasions.

There is one effective treatment that is used most often

Cartwright found that her search for answers landed her online, where she diagnosed herself before seeing a series of doctors and therapists for OCD through her early 20s. Each of them had a different therapeutic approach; some prescribed medication, which didn’t provide much relief. “They just kind of took the top off the anxiety and the bottom off the depression, but they did nothing to lessen the intensity or the frequency of the thoughts themselves,” she says. Make sure you know these 9 signs you could have an anxiety disorder.

In her mid-20s, Cartwright met with a therapist in the United States who finally diagnosed her with OCD and treated her with exposure therapy. This type of treatment, also called exposure and response therapy (ERP), is a type of cognitive behavioral therapy that is the front-line treatment for OCD, according to Dr. Austern. “ERP is designed to have people face the fears that their OCD is essentially telling them they must avoid by doing something, thinking something, or avoiding something because if they confront these obsessions, whatever the content of them is, it is going to be unbearable,” Dr. Austern says.

After educating the patient and normalizing the experience, Dr. Austern says, doctors will help the ERP patient rank the situation he or she is avoiding according to how challenging it would be to face that situation without performing a ritual. The patient then goes into that situation without doing the ritual, such as saying a phrase, counting, or avoiding something.

“If it is something that people might call Pure O, it gets a little trickier because we need to know what they are doing in their minds,” Dr. Austern says. “And we can’t necessarily observe the ritual in the room.” The goal is to have patients get used to the discomfort of these situations and learn that they can face it without performing a ritual.

Cartwright believes, however, that there is no one-size-fits-all OCD treatment. “Everyone has to figure that out, and I’m still in the process of figuring that out myself,” she says. “It’s not sort of a game with different levels, and then you get to the end level and you’re done. It’s an evolving process.” For Jean, that includes both cognitive therapy and medication.

Cartwright’s therapy process gave her relief, confidence, and some clarity to pitch a piece on her story to the Guardian. “I knew by then that this was something that was being experienced in secret by thousands, if not millions,” Cartwright says. “So I just felt compelled to tell my story. It wasn’t a choice—it had an energy all its own.”

Her story caught the attention of Aaron Harvey and motivated his search for as much information as possible about Pure O. Harvey, who grew up in the suburbs of Orlando, Florida, started having his own intrusive thoughts around eight years old. He didn’t tell anyone in his home or school about his internal struggles—and ended up grappling with them on his own for more than 20 years. “The idea of who you are and what your character is starts to crumble in front of you because you are sort of defining yourself, and those thoughts and images make you question who you are and what you’re capable of,” he says. Know these 8 signs that you could have OCD.

Ironically, his psychotherapist of six months had no idea that his symptoms were OCD. Dr. Austern notes that OCD is a specialty, so fewer therapists have extensive OCD training. There are, however, online resources for individuals who think they are experiencing OCD, such as beyoncocd.org.

Over the next two years, Harvey experimented with different medications and some exposure therapy and consulted various psychiatrists who offered many different diagnoses. Much like Cartwright and unlike Jean, Harvey didn’t find much comfort in medication.

Sharing personal experiences with OCD and mental health issues are key

And as Harvey learned more and more about Pure O, he also dealt with some anger. “I was angry that this whole thing could have been prevented when I was 13 if there was better information available,” he says. “My parents worked in health care, I’m in a middle-class family, my parents are together, I was raised in a happy and healthy family, as a white male in America, and with all of my privilege, this information did not arrive to my family or me.”

This lack of information promotes the misconceptions about OCD that promote its informal use in casual lingo. Jean—who doesn’t identify with the term Pure O—isn’t offended by this lax usage, but says it’s good to start making people aware of what it really means. “People who say ‘I’m OCD’ obviously could never know how scary and debilitating real obsessive-compulsive disorder is,” Jean says. “It’s definitely just a lack of awareness.”

Harvey doesn’t judge people who use the term “OCD” as an adjective either, but he too thinks more education is necessary, especially about the types of compulsions he and Cartwright have that aren’t visible, and specifically about Pure O. It’s hard for people to understand Pure O because it isn’t as visual as other OCD tropes, he notes. “All of these avoidance things are actually the real compulsion,” Harvey says. “That’s why ‘pure’ is an important phrase because it kind of feels like things are purely happening in your head.”

Both the misconceptions about OCD and his own anger about the lack of information online motivated Harvey to spread awareness and advocate. He reached out to Cartwright, thanking her for writing her story, and together they created intrusivethoughts.org. Now the pair is building up Made of Millions—a website dedicated to inspiring grassroots change to combat the stigma of mental health. Try these 9 natural treatments for OCD.

Harvey says that coming out with his own story on the platform wasn’t something he looked forward to, but he knew it was the right thing to do because of the positive impact it would have on others. “Obviously it’s a scary thing, but once I did it, I felt good because I was able to use what I do for a living—advertising, design, creative, marketing, writing—and use all that skill that I acquired over the last decade and bring that into something that actually needs to reach people,” he says.

Cartwright hopes that Made of Millions will provide people who are suffering with the space to share their stories and explore the emotional side of mental health, beyond the therapy courses and information about medical treatment that other sites offer. “We want to hear from people in different countries about what their experiences are and what their stories are and learn from that, and I think that that’s quite different from feeling like you’ve reached a conclusion and you’ve got conclusions to dispense and teach people,” Cartwright says. Next, check out these 6 proven ways to cope with obsessive-compulsive disorder. 

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7 Macular Degeneration Risk Factors You Can Control—and 4 You Can’t

What is macular degeneration?

It’s one of the top cause of blindness in American’s over the age of 60, reports the National Institutes of Health; 10 million people in the United States. have this condition. The macula is the name for the center of your eye’s retina, and it’s responsible for your central vision—it’s the reason you’re able to read, drive, recognize faces, and discern fine details, according to the American Macular Degeneration Foundation. When the macula breaks down—degenerates—your central vision goes, and blindness results.

The disease is often referred to as age-related macular degeneration, or AMD, because it largely occurs in people age 50 and older, though it can strike earlier. In fact, one form of macular degeneration, Stargardt disease, afflicts young people—though it is very rare. If you want to protect your eyes throughout your live, these 13 vision boosters can help.

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Why You Probably Shouldn’t Wash Your Face in the Shower

Everyone has their perfect shower routine and favorite products. Some people like starting with hair washing and others prefer sudsing up the whole body first. For most people, part of the process is washing your face—but it might not be the best thing for your skin.

The main reason you probably shouldn’t wash your face in the shower is that people typically use much hotter water when showering, according to Benjamin Garden, MD, a dermatologist practicing in Chicago. “It feels so good on a cold winter day or after a tough workout, but that hot water is very damaging and irritating to our skin,” he says. Hot water dissolves and washes away the natural oils on the skin, Dr. Garden says. And the hotter the water, the more drying it is. Plus, too much hot water on the face over time can also produce excess pigment or coloring in the skin. So Dr. Garden especially recommends people who are prone to discoloration or melasma to avoid too much hot water on the face. This is how you can tell if you have melasma, sun spots, or other skin spots.

Another reason to avoid washing your face in the shower is time. Any long, lingering showers create too much exposure to water which, again, irritates and damages the skin. Moving your face washing routine to the sink not only cuts down on the amount of water the comes into contact with the body, but it also shortens shower time. Dr. Gardner says the ideal shower time should be between five to ten minutes. Make sure you’re not making these 8 other showering mistakes, either.

Although washing your face in the shower could be bad for your skin, there is a way to do so carefully to avoid these negatives. Dr. Gardner recommends showering briefly, only once per day, and with warm water. He also suggests turning your back to the water and just running it on your face during a quick facial wash. Also, make sure also to avoid loofahs since they are too irritating—it’s just one of the 15 everyday habits that are wrecking your skin.

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This Is How Bad It Is to Sleep with Wet Hair

At the end of a long day, it’s all too easy to take a hot shower, throw on some pajamas, brush your teeth, and then jump into bed. But have you ever stopped to think about the risks of sleeping with wet hair? As it turns out, going to bed with wet hair isn’t as harmless as you probably thought.

The first negative result of sleeping with wet hair is purely cosmetic: you can’t predict how your wet hair is going to look in the morning. “If you try to style your hair in the morning after sleeping on it wet, you’re probably going to have trouble styling the resulting frizziness, funny waves, flat sides, and crinkles,” says hairstylist Olga Gilbert of J. Russell Salon in Southern California.

“When you wake up to unruly bedhead, you’re probably going to have to re-wet it again to properly dry it and regain control. This unnecessarily adds time to your morning routine,” she says.

Gilbert says that sleeping with wet hair does not immediately damage your hair follicles or shaft, but it can certainly lead to hair breakage, because wet hair is weakest when wet, making it more pliable and easy to break. “If you pull your wet hair up into a tight ponytail or bun, you have a much greater chance of breaking it during the night,” Gilbert says. To help with that, here’s how to repair damaged hair with items you already have at home.

If you absolutely must sleep with wet hair because, say, you have to wake up early for work, there are a few easy ways to minimize the damage. First, you can swap your cotton pillowcases for silk or satin ones like these. Silk has a much smoother surface that’s less abrasive on your wet hair, so you won’t experience as much unfortunate breakage. Skipping on the silk pillowcase is one of the nighttime habits that could ruin your hair.

Next, you can make sure to sleep with your hair down or in a loose braid, instead of up in a tight bun or ponytail. In addition, you should replace your tight, elastic bands with a soft scrunchy that isn’t going to roughly pull at night. If you’re willing, it’s also very helpful (but less comfortable) to wrap your hair in a silk scarf.

Finally, if you’re going to bed with wet hair, the most important rule is to never ever skip out on applying product! Leave-in conditioners, protective serums, dry oils, and texturizing mousses are some of the best ways to ensure you don’t wake up looking like an alpaca while protecting your precious locks from damage. Now that you know how bad sleeping with wet hair is, make sure you’re not making these hairstyle mistakes that age your face.

 

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This Is What Microneedling Really Does to Your Face

What is microneedling?

Microneedling (also known as collagen induction therapy) involves using fine needles to create hundreds of tiny, invisible puncture wounds in the top layer of skin. Sound appealing? Not so much. But this minimally invasive treatment—whether it’s done in-office by a trained aesthetician, dermatologist, or plastic surgeon, or at home using a dermaroller (a small, handheld paint roller coated in tiny needles)—is virtually painless and incredibly effective. “The micro-injuries you create stimulates the body’s natural wound healing processes, resulting in cell turnover and increased collagen and elastin production, therefore reversing as well as preventing signs of aging,” says board-certified dermatologist and RealSelf contributor Sejal Shah, MD. (It works the same way lasers do, only you’re injuring the skin mechanically instead of using heat or light.) Believe it or not, microneedling benefits caught the eye of skincare fanatics interested in anti-aging.

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This Is Why Reading Is So Important for Your Brain

You can take fish oil supplements or eat lots of turmeric. You can invest in a language class, puzzle books, or a few hours of exercise every week. There are countless methods to (allegedly) improve your memory and cognitive functioning—the brain-training and -assessment industry is expected to reach $8 billion by 2022, according to a major market research report. But the cheapest, easiest, and most time-tested way to sharpen your brain is right in front of your face. It’s called reading.

The fact that reading is good for your brain isn’t surprising—there’s a reason moms are always on their kids’ cases to turn off the TV and pick up a good book. But there’s something astounding about how such an ordinary activity can improve your brain in so many ways.

The most basic impact occurs in the area associated with language reception, the left temporal cortex. Processing written material—from the letters to the words to the sentences to the stories themselves—snaps the neurons to attention as they start the work of transmitting all that information. That happens when we process spoken language, too, but the very nature of reading encourages the brain to work harder and better. “Typically, when you read, you have more time to think,” says Maryanne Wolf, EdD, director of the UCLA Center for Dyslexia, Diverse Learners, and Social Justice. “Reading gives you a unique pause button for comprehension and insight. By and large, with oral ­language—when you watch a film or listen to a tape—you don’t press pause.”

And the benefits of reading continue long after you’ve put down that great book. A small study at Emory University found that some of those benefits persisted for five days. “We call that a shadow activity, almost like a muscle memory,” says Gregory Berns, PhD, director of the Center for Neuro­policy at Emory. In fact, this is how reading in a certain font can improve your memory.

OK, you say, it’s hardly surprising that the language part of the brain would get a workout from reading. But reading also energizes the region responsible for motor activity, the central sulcus. That’s because the brain is a very exuberant play actor. When it is reading about a physical activity, the neurons that control that activity get busy as well. You may not actually be riding a horse when you’re reading Seabiscuit, but your brain acts as if it is. And the more parts of your brain that get a workout, the better it is for your overall cognitive performance.

That said, not all reading is created equal. Preliminary results from a study conducted at Stanford University indicate that close literary reading in particular gives your brain a major workout. MRI scans of people who are deep into a Jane Austen novel showed an increase in blood flowing to areas of the brain that control both cognitive and executive function, as opposed to the more limited effects that come from more leisurely reading.

What if you are (or someone you know is) a poor, or even a dyslexic, reader who feels as if you’ll never be able to read enough to reap these benefits? A book can fix that problem too! Scientists at Carnegie Mellon University studied children ages eight to ten who were below-average readers. One hundred hours of remedial reading classes significantly improved the quality of their brains’ white matter—the tissue that carries signals between areas of gray matter, where information is 
processed. The researchers’ conclusion: The brains of these children had begun to rewire themselves in ways that could benefit the entire brain, not only the reading-centric temporal cortex. Learn more about why your brain needs to read every single day.

The ability to read closely is something that needs to be nurtured. In her new book, Reader, Come Home, Wolf notes that even she, as someone who reads for a living, has found her ability to concentrate on the written word fading as more of what we read is on a screen. “Unfortunately, this form of reading is rarely continuous, sustained, or concentrated,” she writes. That sets up a vicious cycle: Without the sustained exercise of our reading “muscles,” the brain loses its ability to control the intricate processes that allow us to read deeply.

Of course, there’s an easy solution: Turn off your phone and your computer, set aside a good hour or two—and just read. Not sure where to start? Pick up one of these 100 books everyone should read before they die.

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12 Bizarre-Sounding Anti-Aging Treatments That Really Work

Vampire facial

This technique gained notoriety from the Keeping Up With the Kardashians episode in which Kim gets a new anti-aging treatment that leaves her face spotted with blood, the “vampire facial,” or platelet-rich plasma (PRP) treatment, utilizes the body’s own growth factors to regenerate tissue and promote collagen production. “During this procedure, blood is taken from the patient’s vein and placed in a specialized centrifuge,” describes plastic surgeon and RealSelf contributor, David Shafer, MD. “As the blood spins at a very fast speed, the components of the blood separate into serum, platelets, and red blood cells, and the PRP layer is isolated and used for various rejuvenating procedures.” While the PRP does not add volume, Dr. Shafer claims it can give local cells a healthy boost. Discover 6 more weird facials you never knew you could get.

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12 Flu “Myths” That Are Actually True

True: The flu virus can live awhile on surfaces

If you think living organisms like viruses and bacteria die quickly when they’re not infecting you, think again. The flu virus can live on hard surfaces up to one day; it can live in the air in moisture droplets (like those caused by a sneeze) for several hours, too. On your skin, however, it dies rapidly: The virus will only last five minutes on your hands. On other parts of your body, it may linger up to 15 minutes. That’s still plenty of time for you to bring the virus from a surface to your hands and then to your nose or mouth.

“The most common way the flu virus is spread is when hands that have been in contact with contaminated surfaces go near your face,” says Papatya Tankut, RPh, vice president of pharmacy affairs at CVS Health. “That’s why you should wash your hands frequently with soap and water or an alcohol-based cleanser.” Just watch out for these 10 hand-washing mistakes everyone makes.

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15 Everyday Habits That Are Wrecking Your Skin

You use a loofah

You may think you’re scrubbing away dirt when you wash with a loofah, but you could actually be harming the delicate balance of good bacteria on your skin. “We now understand that to maintain skin health, we must protect our skin’s healthy rain forest of powerful bugs that comprise the skin’s microbiome,” says dermatologist Whitney Bowe, MD, author of The Beauty of Dirty Skin. “Research has shown that our good bugs can prevent infection, control inflammation, aid in wound healing, and keep skin looking younger.” Instead of harsh cleansing that can cause skin damage, exfoliate—using your hands—no more than twice a week, Dr. Bowe says.

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11 Pets You Should Keep Away From Your Face

Dogs

A cuddle from man’s best friend can warm your heart. But a lick on the face can make you sick. That’s because a dog’s saliva can carry all sorts of pathogens: for example, fever-inducing Brucella canis; the bacteria Leptospira interrogans, which can lead to kidney and liver trouble; and the rare Capnocytophaga canimorsus, which a study in the journal Veterinary Microbiology found was present in 74 percent of dogs, though it’s rare in humans and usually only passed through bite or scratch. Be sure to avoid these 53 mistakes nearly every dog owner makes.

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Homemade Weed Killer Recipes: Get Rid of Weeds Without Chemicals

Overview People with green thumbs are united in their hatred for weeds and give these rather undesired visitors a collective thumbs-down. Weeds are essentially unwanted plant growths that crop up out of place where they are not sown intentionally. Despite your best efforts to keep weeds at bay, these pesky, persistent, and pernicious plants grow […]

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Homemade Weed Killer Recipes: Get Rid of Weeds Without Chemicals

Overview People with green thumbs are united in their hatred for weeds and give these rather undesired visitors a collective thumbs-down. Weeds are essentially unwanted plant growths that crop up out of place where they are not sown intentionally. Despite your best efforts to keep weeds at bay, these pesky, persistent, and pernicious plants grow […]

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