An obsession is a persistent, unwanted thought or
idea that keeps recurring.
All of us can think of an occasion when idea or
mental image has popped into our head without warning and most of us are never
bothered by these thoughts and can easily forget them. But some people can’t
get rid of them as easily as the rest of us. A man can go on vocation and
wonder the whole time whether he locked his house. A woman may hear the same
tune running through her head over and over. In each case, the thought or idea
is unwanted and difficult to put out of mind. Of course, many people suffer
from mild obsessions from time to time, but usually such thoughts persist only
for short period of time. For people with serious obsessions, however, the
thoughts persist for days or months and may consist of bizarre, troubling
images.
People who suffer from obsessive – compulsive
disorder (OCD) are plagued by intrusive thoughts and they can’t banish from
their mind, no matter how hard they try. They are tortured by obsessive
thoughts and images, which they found profoundly disgusting and distressing.
The obsessions experience by OCD suffers can be grouped along several common
themes: fears of contamination by germs, dirt or chemicals; fears of flooding
the house, causing a fire; aggressive thoughts about physically harming a loved
one; concerns about exactness or symmetry; intrusive sexual thoughts or urges;
excessively doubting own morals or religious convictions; a need to tell, ask
or confess.
And even if person is not suffering from OCD, obsession
may be very harmful as it is as an iron mask that permits to gaze only in one
direction at one thing. We may become obsessed with a person, a place, a goal,
a subject – but obsession leads to the same thing in all cases: addiction. And like all addictions, obsession is intoxicating.
And also like all addictions, with time obsession unbalances us. We very often
begin neglect parts of our life we should not. And sometimes we believe that we
will never be happy again if an object of our obsession is taken away from us. But
this belief is a delusion, because our happiness never depends on any one
thing, no matter how important that one thing may seem.
Despite the above, it is very important to mention that it is hard,
or even impossible, to achieve something great without being just a little bit
obsessed with it. Actually, if made to serve us, obsession can bring out our most
capable selves, motivating us to find the creativity to solve incredibly
difficult problems. In short, obsession can lead us to greatness. The challenge is to make our obsessions function positively,
controlling them so they do not control us, extracting benefit of obsession and here, of course, I am not speaking about obsessions which are part of serious disfuntcion such us mentioned above OCD.
References:
http://www.psychologytoday.com
(viewed at 2012 03 04)
http://www.bbc.co.uk/science/humanbody/mind/articles/disorders/ocd.shtml
(viewed at 2012 03 04)
Pictures references:
http://www.teisescentras.lt/index.php/lt
(viewed at 2012 03 20)
http://www.diskusijos.darnipora.lt
(viewed
at 2012 03 20)
