Minecraft and explaining how to fight OCD

[Jedi Master Scarface]

I know that some unfortunate young(quite young) people can endure OCD. I recently came to an epiphany which may help explain OCD and dealing with it. The key to OCD is that the thoughts and compulsions from it are your enemy and by ignoring and paying no attention to it, OCD will have less impact on your life.

Well, I came to conclusion, in Minecraft there is a mob called the enderman. This particular monster is peaceful the majority of the time, only being a little of a nuisance. However, look at it and a different action begins. The enderman begins to attack you and try to kill you. It only does this if you attack it first or look at it. It is incredibly powerful too, so it is a tough fight. By using this as an example of how OCD is affecting your young child, this may be easier to explain to them. OCD can only be combatted by ignoring it, not concentrating on it, similar to the enderman. And if you do look at it, it is a powerful and ominous enemy. You may be able to better explain to young kids how these two are similar and how they have similar ways to defeat it, by ignoring it.

I hope this in some way gives parents and idea on how to deal with OCD. I have posted this on the young people and friends/family sections in hope that this may help. Thank you for reading this.

[ecomum]

My daughter suffers with anxiety (not ocd thats me ) and i think that might be useful for her.thanks !

[Guest Sally44]

Ignoring and concentrating on something are very different. But I think you are right in that many with OCD, their family, friends and even some professionals don't realise this and by their actions and wanting to 'talk about it' it actually causes the person with OCD to 'concentrate' more on their OCD, when they should be ignoring it.

My son is 14 and occasionally plays Minecraft. I shall ask him about this monster and see if he has come across it.

[Purplepiper7]

There's another mob known as the zombie pigman, and he can be found in the nether. Normally, they ignore you, but if you attack one of them, if you engage in combat, it and all of the surrounding pigmen will turn to attack you. The pigmen look really scary and dangerous, but if you just walk past them without engaging them, they won't attack you, and you'll find that they are harmless.

[Jedi Master Scarface]

Yes of course the zombie pigman too is a great example, I believe relating things like this is really a great way to explain to a younger audience about the power of OCD and how to combat it. Otherwise, just using such complicated words and basically coming from an alien origin to them can be difficult. Best to try and connect with them with something that they know, that they understand. Minecraft is an incredibly popular outlet for a growing number of children, even if they don't play it they probably know many details about it. This way, you may be able to inform them about how they shall deal with their OCD/anxiety or at the very least what OCD is in a way. JUst having something that they already are familiar with can be a great deal of help in their understanding of the situations. I always find that understanding OCD is part of the course to defeating it, it is so much more difficult for the younger audiences to recognise and absorb the information about it. Of course, there may be exceptions but this is only a theoretic answer I have for those who have more trouble in explaining what OCD is.

To sally44, yes by concentrating on OCD you'll be giving it the time of the day which isn't the best thing, but initially this can be a great relief. It was to me to finally find out why I was different and had things I perceived wrong with me. With knowledge comes power and whilst OCD feeds off of being thought about, knowledge also brings you the solutions to it. That is why it is so difficult to fight it in the beginning. You are obsessing over it and the fact you have it, but slowly you start to understand how to defeat it and it gets a little better each time. You just got to keep ignoring those thoughts, before knowing about OCD, you didn't know the solution so you kept trying to rationalise with those thoughts you had. OCD does not think rationally, it never has and never will. By the realisation of the fact that OCD feeds off of you thinking about it then you will know how to fight it.

[Guest kachet]

cool

[Guest 69pirateslane]

my 14 yr old just went through "an episode" tonight I will be relating this to him... Thanks