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OCD and Brexit


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It is understandable that in a country divided about Brexit that little or no comment has been made about    Brexit. But the subject had affected my OCD which involves checking and hoarding.

I think that we should restrict our discussions to OCD issues.

Today I have started stockpiling or hoarding. I am diagnosed with OCD and OCD hoarding and non OCD hoarding.

I was motivated by reports from retailers and manufacturers. As well as retailers which are stockpiling such as Tesco, Waitrose and the Coop.  As well as universities with halls of residences and hospitals. I have bought ‘excess’ tins of food and toilet paper. Although fresh food is in danger of shortage and price increase the substitution principle in economics teaches us that the knock on effect of shortages in one sphere is lack of supply or price increases in other areas. In this case food. As people switch products. I plan to buy excess stocks of frozen vegetables. As well as rice and lentils.

I am checking information from the London School of Economics blogs, the Financial Times, The Guardian, El Pais, Suddeutsche Zeitung, the Washington Post, and the New York Times. I check the exchange rates. As I find political developments hour by hour are reflected in exchange  rates. I do this after every political statement by the UK government.

Is this a product of OCD reasoning or a realistic strategy to prevent starvation? 

Edited by Angst
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I imagine you're not the only OCD-sufferer having these kinds of worries about Brexit.

I think Daja's point is a great one.  We don't know what's round the corner.  Chances are things will not be as catastrophic as we think - that is usually the way.  

You can't prepare for everything and trying to do so is playing OCD's game. 

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I was thinking about buying a chest freezer for frozen veg but maybe it’s ocd - after reading this thread I think maybe it might have been? Checking the market rates and news reports to see whether you should buy stuff is definitely ocd however. Those are compulsions you need to stop.

Edited by Orwell1984
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Thanks for the replies. I already have a freezer but buying one for frozen veg shows the substitution principle in operation. Nowadays we have just in time systems not just in manufacturing but in food supply as well. The supermarkets have very limited warehouse space.  In order not have money tied up in inventory/stock. The average city is six meals away from lack of supply. I remember when there were riots two years ago about the lack in of KFC! Decided to have two weeks stock. Checking electronic information is a major problem for all us with texts, likes etc. Built in behavioural devices built into software to promote addiction. I do try to  limit. And do succeed more than most.

Edited by Angst
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On 21/09/2019 at 13:40, Angst said:

Checking electronic information is a major problem for all us with texts, likes etc. Built in behavioural devices built into software to promote addiction. I do try to  limit. And do succeed more than most.

I’ve thought this every time some one says addiction is the wrong term for people who have to keep checking social media,  it might not be an addiction but it sure sounds like a compulsion.

sorry to drift off topic.

(probably just as well there are not “likes” on here...)

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To be honest, if you really were in a situation where hoarding was going to make a difference it would probably be made illegal.

There is nothing wrong with having some tins and frozen stuff, even if it’s just so you can skip the big shop some times.

Two freezers... lots of people do, we have in the past but the food worked its way through it wasn’t earmarked for the end of the world.

So is it OCD, or forward planning,

Buying Christmas puds in January cos they are cheap is forward planning.

Feeling  the need to scour the world news and financial markets like a government level disaster relief logistics analyst then plotting it on a spreadsheet against your carrot usage rates...probably OCD.

Worrying if it’s OCD...  It’s OCD.

 

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Interesting film and book The Big Short. It was true. The bright guys did not buy property. They waited. They did the maths. It is not just governments who make calculations.

There are plans to stop hoarding. It is revealed in the documents around yellowhammer.

I would welcome it. It would show rational planning. UK had it in the 1940s.  

If we look that the UK in the past with Ireland when part of UK  - the famine - and the effect of the Corn Laws  throughout the UK -  no rational planning. Little rational planning in innumerable disruptions to food distribution to the present day in most parts of the world over the past years.

Edited by Angst
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I don't think it's just scare-mongering- companies are already collapsing; certain medications are going to be in short supply including life-saving meds like insulin and certain chemotherapies. There are also already supply issues with some of the dyes used for Positron Emission scans for cancer diagnostics etc., which are causing significant delays in diagnoses.

This is big and it was a really stupid decision that the UK made and it will have consequences for years to come. Forward planning and stockpiling as necessary is fine but might not make a huge amount of difference and like Daja says we do probably have to practise acceptance in this situation- there's no point trying to control something over which you have no control! 

Edited by BelAnna
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On 23/09/2019 at 13:44, PolarBear said:

Remember Y2K? The world was supposed to end. It didn't.

Besides your hoarding, your other compulsion is scouring media for proof you need to hoard. It's not healthy.

Oh sorry- my post was in response to the above post.

I think that researching obsessively and purchasing new freezers are compulsions. 

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On 20/09/2019 at 06:29, Angst said:

Is this a product of OCD reasoning or a realistic strategy to prevent starvation? 

If you think it might be OCD, it probably is.  Since you are asking the question, that means you think it might be OCD, therefore... :D

Sure Brexit (and other problems around the world) are not great, and there will likely be negative consequences, but your reaction is definitely catastrophizing.  Hoarding isn't a healthy behavior, Brexit or no-Brexit.  If you live in an area that is prone to natural disasters (earthquakes, tornados, floods, etc.) it can make sense to have a reasonable amount of emergency supplies (about a backpacks worth per family member) but thats about the extent you need.  Beyond that is probably unnecessary and wasteful.  In your case its also mentally unhealthy to engage in that kind of compulsive behavior.

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On 24/09/2019 at 00:05, BelAnna said:

I don't think it's just scare-mongering- companies are already collapsing; certain medications are going to be in short supply including life-saving meds like insulin and certain chemotherapies. There are also already supply issues with some of the dyes used for Positron Emission scans for cancer diagnostics etc., which are causing significant delays in diagnoses.

This is big and it was a really stupid decision that the UK made and it will have consequences for years to come. Forward planning and stockpiling as necessary is fine but might not make a huge amount of difference and like Daja says we do probably have to practise acceptance in this situation- there's no point trying to control something over which you have no control! 

Interesting, that I mentioned shorting just over a week ago and it has become in the last two days a major news story in the Brexit context. 

I think Closed for Repairs makes good sense. In the bad winter of 2010 friends of mine were marooned in rural Shropshire for several weeks in their home and their stock of food kept them fit and healthy for the two weeks of immobility.

As I said I plan to have two weeks supply.

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