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[Music]
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hey everybody welcome back back
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to the around and around the OCD Circle
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podcast I'm glad you're here good
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morning I hope you're having a beautiful
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day so far I wanted to remind you guys
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that this is not really my podcast it's
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your podcast so if there's something you
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would like for me to discuss please let
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me know also if you or anyone you know
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would like to come on and tell your
1:50
story you're always welcome to do that
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just message me at any of my social
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media links in the show notes today I'm
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going to be talking about a pretty
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uncomfortable Topic at least for me I
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imagine it's uncomfortable for other
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people as well we're going to be talking
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about uh depression and anxiety how it
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can significantly impact daily hygiene
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habits I'm going to be doing this raw I
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don't have anything written down I do
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have a bullet point list
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of of ways that this happens so as I
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list each bullet point I'm going to talk
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about my person experience and then if
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any of you would like to let me know
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some of your experiences with these I
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would love to hear
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them so the first one is decreased
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motivation both depression and anxiety
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can sap motivation and energy making it
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difficult for individuals to muster the
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drive to engage in self-care activities
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like showering brushing teeth or
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grooming
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so before I go down this list I wanted
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to talk about one of the times in my
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life where I was probably the most
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depressed I've ever
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been that was the year 206 I believe
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and during that time for several weeks I
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would not
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shower I was so depressed I would just
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to get in and out of the shower would
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have been a struggle for for me and I
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had a business and I would go into work
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every day and be around people not
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having showered and I don't know I think
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I was just so out of it mental
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healthwise that I didn't realize how it
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was affecting others around
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me and I remember going to therapy one
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day and telling her you know I haven't
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showered in probably two I mean I can't
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remember remember the last time I
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showered and she said oh I know she says
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I can smell you and I remember looking
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at her and going you can smell me and
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she's like yeah and like she was on the
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other side of the room and I was so
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embarrassed and it took
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that
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conversation for me to realize how
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really really depressed I
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was and that I was not even noticing
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how this was affecting other people I
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can't imagine my family my family didn't
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say anything about it my friends didn't
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say anything about it but luckily my
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therapist came out and told me the
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truth I still to this day when I get
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depressed or anxious um probably don't
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shower as often as I
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should it's just not something that I
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have the energy to do I'm not motivated
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to do it especially when I'm going to
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stay home and not go anywhere I figure
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nobody's going to notice
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so why should I take the time to shower
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you know what I
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mean the only reason truly that I forced
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myself into taking a shower is because
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of my hair because I don't like my hair
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to look oily
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greasy I don't like my hair to feel
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greasy
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so I can even remember back in 2006
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where I would just dunk my head and to
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the sink and wash my hair but I wouldn't
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take a shower I don't know if any of you
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have ever felt this
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way and we'll talk about over showering
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later because some people shower an
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excessive amount of time
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right brushing my teeth is a real
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challenge for me I don't like things in
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my
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mouth um so therefore I don't like
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toothbrushes I don't like toothpaste in
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my mouth and my least favorite thing is
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to do dental
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floss so I will go a long long time
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without brushing my teeth or using
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dental
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floss surprisingly my teeth are in
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pretty decent Health but there was a
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time in my life where I did not go to
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the dentist for 25 years and I think
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I've talked about this already and I was
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really really lucky that my teeth were
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not harmed I didn't have Cav you know
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excessive cavities
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I did have some gum issues but it wasn't
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bad enough to where they had to do any
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kind of surgery or really bad treatment
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on my
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gums but brushing my teeth right now is
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a real struggle
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and um especially the dental floss and I
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will probably be doing dental floss
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right now maybe once a week if I'm
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lucky and I just have to literally force
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myself to do it and then the other
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self-care activity is
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[Music]
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grooming and by grooming I guess they
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mean you know brushing your hair things
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like that shaving your legs or shaving
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your face if you're if you're
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male um I think back then y grooming was
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a problem but I pretty good about
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brushing my hair and and things like
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that so let's go to bullet point number
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two and that is
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fatigue mental health conditions can can
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often lead to feelings of exhaustion or
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constant fatigue which may result in
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individuals neglecting their hygiene
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routine because they simply lack the
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energy to perform these tasks so fatigue
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is different than decreased motivation
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decreased motivation which we were just
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talking about is like you just don't
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want to do it you don't care to do it
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and fatigue is that you're just too
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exhausted to even do it
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and I think people who don't have good
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daily hygiene habits a lot of times
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they're presented as being
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lazy and or that they just don't care
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but when you have like a chronic fatigue
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issue especially um you know a physical
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or mental health chronic fatigue
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issue just the mere amount of time and
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energy it takes to get undressed get in
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the shower get dressed it it it can
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really zap it out of you I mean I know I
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take a lot of naps I am extremely tired
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when I am depressed
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and fatigue is a very big contribution
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to
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that number three is negative thought
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patterns depression and anxiety can lead
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to negative thoughts and feelings about
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oneself including low self-esteem or
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feeling feelings of
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worthlessness this can manifest in
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neglecting personal hygiene as
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individuals may feel they are not
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deserving of
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self-care I'm having to think about that
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for a minute I guess you
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know when I get down on myself sometimes
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I feel like you know why am I bothering
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to do this why am I bothering to shower
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why am I bothering to put makeup on wash
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my face you know smell good nobody's
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going to notice those are the kind of
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negative thoughts that I get
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into
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and I guess that means I feel kind of
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worthless you know why why should I cut
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my hair why should I um take a shower
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why should I brush my teeth you know
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nobody's going to Care nobody's going to
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notice I'm not that important so yeah I
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think number three definitely I can
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relate to that how about
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you number four is avoidance
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behaviors anxiety can cause individuals
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to avoid situations or tasks that
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trigger their anxiety this avoidance May
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extend to hygiene related activities
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particularly if they involve leaving the
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house or interacting with others so my
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avoidance behavior is towards flossing I
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I get very anxious when I floss I get
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very anxious when I brush my teeth
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because I don't like things on my mouth
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I have to actually force myself to put
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that toothbrush in my mouth and move it
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back and forth for a certain amount of
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time and so I believe my avoidance
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behavior is in the teeth brushing
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routine I'm not really sure what they
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mean by hygiene Rel ated
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activities um that involve leaving the
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house or interacting with others
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but I'm not really sure about that what
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that
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means number five is disruptive sleep
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patterns depression and anxiety often
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disrupt disrupt sleep patterns leading
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to insomnia or oversleeping poor sleep
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can exasperate feelings of fatigue and
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further reduce motivation to engage in
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hygiene
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practices I definitely have poor sleep
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habits I stay up till 1 or 2:00 every
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morning usually listening to podcasts
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and playing games on my phone or my
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iPad and I play the same games over and
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over again until they feel right I could
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play for an hour and it feels right but
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usually I have to play 2 to 3 hours
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before it feels right then I I will say
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well if I win one more
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game um it's now midnight I'm going to
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play again until I win one more time and
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then I'll stop and then I'll win one
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more game and then I'm like you know
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what I need to win one more game and I
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do it again it's like a game I play with
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myself and so I end up staying up super
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late and then I have to get up early in
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the morning usually and then during the
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day I'm dragging so what do I do I go
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take a nap so all that does is keep me
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exhausted pretty much all of the time
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but then when it's time to lay down and
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go to sleep I don't go to sleep I get up
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play my game it's just a big pattern
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right around and around the OCD Circle
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it's just a
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pattern number six hyperfocus on
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symptoms in some cases individuals
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experiencing anxiety May
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hyperfocus on physical symptoms such as
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sweating or body odor which can lead to
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excessive grooming or conversely
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avoidance of grooming due to fear of
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judgment so this would apply to a person
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who has contamination
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OCD they bathe over and over again they
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wash their hands over and over again um
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they never feel
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clean um they're just constantly doing
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this or you know sometimes you have
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someone who is performing these rituals
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over and over again to keep themselves
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safe or to keep someone else safe um
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avoidance of grooming due to fear of
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judgment I guess that means that um
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maybe this person feels like they're not
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doing it correctly so they just don't do
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it at
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all um number six hyperfocus on symptoms
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I've never had that
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um I've always been the
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opposite never taking three or four
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showers a day I've known people who do
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though
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and I think it's um I knew someone who
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had children and from the very time they
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were
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born they had to take a bath in the
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morning and they had to take a bath at
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night and it was imperative it was the
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rule in their house and I feel like that
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was kind of setting these children up in
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the
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future to
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hyperfocus on
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hygiene I could be wrong but I just
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remember thinking that wow you know
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that's a lot to put on a
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kid number seven is lack of
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routine depression and anxiety can
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disrupt daily routines including hygiene
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routines without a structured daily
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schedule schedule individuals may find
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it challenging to consistently engage in
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self-care
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activities and and this is true I did
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better at brushing my teeth when I
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actually wrote them in my planner but I
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haven't done that in a long time and I
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would check it off twice a day morning
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and evening brush my teeth this is
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reminding me that maybe I need to do
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that maybe I need to uh put showering in
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my daily routine
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but I think what's going to end up
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happening is I'm going to get up one
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morning and I'm going to see shower and
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I'm going to go you know what I'm just
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going to skip this today I think that's
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probably what's going to up happening
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maybe not so much with the tooth
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brushing because it doesn't take as much
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time but it takes a lot of time and
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energy to to take a shower really does
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when I get in the shower I don't take a
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super short shower okay
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and we have a swimming pool and one of
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the reasons why I mean I love swimming
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and everything but one reason I don't
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swim every day is the showering issue
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because if I want to swim for an hour
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then it's going to take me at least 30
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minutes to take a shower and then
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somewhere in there my hair needs to
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dry and it just becomes it just becomes
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a pain so lack of
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[Music]
16:30
I'm going to try to make myself
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accountable this week and write
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toothbrushing twice a day on my um
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planner and see if that
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works um the last one number eight is
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social withdrawal depression and anxiety
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can lead to social withdrawal or
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isolation reducing the perceived need
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for maintaining personal hygiene
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especially if there are fewer social
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interactions to motivate these behaviors
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years you know that we just talked about
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that a few minutes ago you know during
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Co was really really rough because we
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weren't leaving and so my hygiene
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routines really went to pot at that time
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because nobody was seeing me nobody was
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around and you know I didn't care
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um so maybe scheduling time into my week
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where I am around other people maybe
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that would make me care because I go to
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work twice a week into the office and so
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I always make sure I take a shower the
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morning before I leave so those two days
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are taken those two days are definitely
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shower days whereas if I would go
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somewhere every single day uh I'm not
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talking about like going to the store
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like I go to a store every Monday
17:49
morning and shop for my
17:51
business but I'm talking more about
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meeting friends or going to church or
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you know going to some kind of group and
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I need social interaction anyway so I
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need to start thinking about ways that I
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can get out and meet other people and do
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things and you know have lunch with
18:13
somebody I mean I should shower before I
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do that
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right it's important to note that the
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severity of these effects can vary
18:23
greatly from person to person and depend
18:26
on various factors including the individ
18:28
ual specific symptoms the presence of
18:31
other mental health conditions and the
18:34
level of support available to them
18:37
professional support from therapists
18:39
counselors or mental health
18:40
professionals can be crucial in
18:42
addressing these challenges and
18:45
developing strategies to manage daily
18:47
hygiene despite the impact of depression
18:50
and
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anxiety while I will say that this
18:54
episode has been very uncomfortable for
18:56
me I
19:00
um talked about some things that I
19:03
haven't talked about on this program
19:05
before and it's embarrassing to
19:09
me and I know there's people who I know
19:12
are going to listen to this episode
19:14
and but I'm glad that I did it I'm glad
19:17
that I talked about it I feel a little
19:19
bit better it's given me some things to
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think about writing uh toothbrushing on
19:25
my planner for instance trying to get
19:27
out more social ially so that I have a
19:30
reason to be clean and just trying to
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take note of how my hygiene affects
19:37
other people it's not only healthier for
19:40
me to be clean and groomed it's more
19:45
pleasant for other people around me but
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if I don't have other people around me
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then I tend to get stuck in that rut and
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I want to get out of that rut and if
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you're in that rut right now I hope that
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you will do some things
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this week and the next week and week
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after that that will help you um pay
20:04
more attention to your hygiene and I
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wish you all well I hope you have an
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amazing week I'd really really like to
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see you on our Facebook page the link is
20:14
below we'd love to have you we're a
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small group but it's nice to talk with
20:19
people who have obsessive compulsive
20:21
disorder and kick some ideas around
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and um I will be here bright and early
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next Monday morning so stay tuned for
20:30
that and on Thursdays I have midweek
20:34
motivation I hope you'll tune in for
20:36
that and till next time remember that
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OCD while it cannot be cured it can be
20:43
managed and I'm living proof of that
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I'll talk to you soon
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