Rosie O'Donnell (on The View Last Week) Was Both Right and Wrong About Anxiety

Last week on The View Rosie O'Donnell said that she has OCD (Obsessive Compulsive Disorder). I certainly can't comment as to whether or not she has it without doing an evaluation with her, but I liked a comment that she made. When asked why she doesn't get help for it, she said that it isn't causing her difficulties and she thinks it may be helping her. When asked why, she said she wanted to think about that, but I have some ideas for her.

Here's what's right and wrong about the idea that anxiety (OCD is a type of anxiety) can be helpful.

Right

As you probably know if you've been on this blog for a little while, I'm a huge advocate of optimal levels of anxiety. This is actually the very topic of my new book that I'm writing now, and it's a core tenet of my book Anxious 9 to 5.

Some anxiety keeps you focused, motivated, and excited. A bit of perfectionism (a type of anxiety) helps you do a great job and achieve your goals. Some stage fright helps you prepare and get energized for a performance or speech. Discomfort about your house being a mess helps you clean it every so often.

Basically, if it's not really OCD, anxiety can be very helpful for most of our goals in life and business.

Wrong

The problem occurs when there's too much anxiety. By definition, any "OCD" is not helpful. This is because OCD is obsessive compulsive disorder and if something's a disorder, it's causing difficulties, distress, and impairment.

Here's how anxiety and peak performance work. This picture's small but you can enlarge it. On the left hand side is peak performance (for any of your life or work goals) with the highest being the best and lowest being the worst. On the bottom is anxiety with Very Low on the left and Very High on the right.

As you can see, performance is best when there's a middle level of anxiety. OCD is very high anxiety so it is all the way over on the right. Performance is low and anxiety is very high.

Some of my clients (who really do have OCD) mistakenly believe that it's helping them or that they need it to keep themselves from acting on their fears/obsessions, but this isn't true.

When clients come to me for help with OCD, I help them get rid of all OCD (because even just a little can multiple and become a major problem), but not get rid of all anxiety in their lives. The key is to use it effectively and make it work for you.

So, Rosie, your perfectionism or OCD-ish things could work for you if they keep you focused and motivated and don't cause any problems.  But if it's really OCD, you'll probably have a ton more energy and less distress if you get rid of it. It usually takes somewhere between 10-12 sessions with a therapist who specializes in exposure and ritual prevention therapy for OCD. Here's a link to search for OCD therapists in your area- or come to Philly and see me :)

Thanks for reading!

Larina Kase