How are Pure O and classic OCD different? Well, in their cause, they are not, in their cure, they are not, in the behaviors they cause, they are. They are both Anxiety Symptoms.
OCD and Pure O are very similar conditions, the only difference between them is the compulsion to carry out rituals in OCD.
Both OCD and Pure O are symptoms of an underlying anxiety condition, let me explain. When the anxiety control center in the brain receives data from the sensory organs that tells it that a ‘ real threat’ is present, the flight or fight response is activated. But in anxiety disorders no REAL threat is present so the sensory organs seek out anything, from any source, inside or externally to the body, that could be a threat. Your anxious symptoms and thoughts are detected by the anxiety control center, interpreted as ‘threat’ and more anxiety is released.
The way the mind seeks these threats is by sending out ‘what if’ thoughts to ‘assess’ the environment; in Pure O and OCD, it is these ‘what if thoughts’ coupled with your superior creative intellect that cause your condition!
Let me explain the difference between Pure O and OCD ‘risk assessment thoughts’.
In Pure O you have thoughts such as:
- What if I harm x?
- What if I do X to my (or others) children?
- What if I am gay?
- What if I do X against god?
- What if I pick up this knife and do x?
- What if I am a murderer?
- What if I am a paedophile?
In OCD you may have thoughts such as:
- What if I don’t do X 4 times?
- What if I don’t wash my hands X times?
- What if I have left X switched on?
- What if I have just hit X in my car?
- What if I don’t clean/order those objects?
- What if I don’t say/repeat X?
Do you see how in Pure O thoughts, the question is ‘what if?’ while in OCD the questions demand action for fear of consequences?
This is the only difference. The creative mind embellishes these ‘normal’ and yet exaggerated risk assessment questions as anxiety takes hold and fuels the ‘fear of consequences’. So, although Pure O and OCD are born of the same condition, the same cause and the same behaviors, they are quite different conditions in one sense.
Although Pure O and OCD manifest quite differently, they can be eliminated using the exact same process… the process that has been used, maybe unconsciously, by every recovered anxiety, OCD and Pure O sufferer in the world ever. There is only one cause of Pure O and OCD and therefore only one cure.
You can find more information on that cure here => Anxiety Cure