What my OCD taught me about dealing with the RU Screw

I  have had OCD since I was 10 years old. We’re functional human beings, but the existence can be absolute torture. When your mind gets stuck on something and you absolutely have to ritualistically get rid of these thoughts, the obsessions grow and can take over your life. It did to mine, and when I went through my second break down at 18, I finally decided to seek help from the university’s counseling system. That’s when I found out the only way to deal with OCD is Exposure Therapy. Exposure works like this: you have an obsession that gives you anxiety, but instead of doing compulsions to get rid of the anxiety, you face the obsession and the anxiety dies down.

The truth here is that you cannot run from your fears. OCD is a process of running from one’s fears. As long as you are running, you stay ill. Your fears are like a deep, dark swimming pool. No matter how scary, you just have to go to the board, swallow hard and dive right in. Then you climb out and do it again. You do it over and over and eventually you just get used to it, because your body does not want to feel constant anxiety. I’m not exaggerating when I say this therapy was life changing for me. Not only because it helped me with my mental state, but also because exposure can be applied to all facets of life, and life, as I’m sure you’ve all experienced, gives everyone a fair dosage of negative emotions from the infamous RU SCREW.

Countless things at Rutgers University give all of us anxiety. Let me see if any of this sounds familiar to you: you didn’t get an email about syllabus changes and now you’re behind on assignments; the number of pages you have to study exceeds your age; your professor is taking a decade to grade your test; you owe MORE money or else you can’t get your transcripts… oh and have fun paying that parking ticket.  As unfortunate as it is, life is a long emotional roller coaster, and the negative emotions are what stick with us the longest. We can’t change the things that happen to us, but we can change our perspectives. Life is 99 percent perspective, and this is where the exposure comes in.

The lesson OCD taught me about dealing with stress, is that you just have to jump in. Jump in and do the deed that you’ve been dreading. Don’t even think about procrastinating; count to 3 and open that email regarding your “outstanding balance” (thanks Barchi). This occurred to me last year when I realized I had to study ten pages of notes for biology, but I couldn’t bring myself to do it because the dread of studying made me want to stay in bed and watch Netflix. The anxiety of the test is a different feeling from OCD anxiety, but exposure still applied. The longer I “exposed” myself to studying the material, the less dread I felt about studying and the upcoming exam.

You’re afraid of joining a fraternity? Expose yourself to the brothers. Go to the rush events and expose yourself until your heart stops rushing. You’re feeling anxiety from your professor not giving you your test grade back? Expose yourself to the uncertainty and lack of answers. You’re dreading staying up all night to study? Jump into the all nighter, and eventually you’ll just get used to it.

The main factor making RU Screw infamous is the inevitable negative emotions it will make you feel. But feelings of negativity, dare I say, are harmless. They’re feelings- a temporary state of mind that you can change if you just face your fears head on until the negativity dies down.

So if you’re dealing with RU screw right now, if you’re dealing with something that is making you scared or doubtful, I implore you: Count to three and face EXACTLY what is making you scared. Face it for a couple hours if you have to, and I promise you, the fear dies and you move on.