Tip: The Anxiety of Office Supplies?

If there is anything we know about OCD, it is that it will take every available opportunity to give you anxiety. And that (irritating) feature of OCD can manifest in even the most mundane of circumstances, like at the office. This means, that at your workplace, even the most innocuous items can be fodder for OCD. This is especially true if you have harm OCD. With harm OCD, you will have thoughts like “what if I stapled my coworker’s face?” or what if I threw my computer at my boss’s head?” Thoughts you don’t want to have and would never act on, but because of OCD, these thoughts will stay with you for hours whereas when non-OCD have similar thoughts, they fade in a couple seconds. This type of harm OCD can be even more difficult if you work around dangerous machinery or chemicals as then you will be having these same types of thoughts but in these cases, the end result of these thoughts might be OCD trying to convince you that want to maim or murder your coworker.

And in the end, the primary advice for these situations is the same as any other OCD situation. Be aware that OCD might try to use anything from a paperclip to a watercooler against you and make sure to conduct exposure therapies with the particular items or appliances that cause you the most distress. Worried you are going to dump hot coffee into a coworker’s eyes? Then do your best to spend extra time near the coffee pot and maybe even offer to pour coffee for other people. Or maybe you are concerned that you are going to jab a push pin into someone’s neck? Go around the office carrying push pins and maybe even hang some random papers up with the pins at different parts of your office. They key, as always, is to treat activities that OCD is trying to make you fearful of, as completely normal tasks that “ordinary” people would be able to do without hesitation. Good luck, and I hope that soon you are able view your office or work space as a non-threatening, and even boring, place!