Sleeping-with-ROCD

vironment. When the child feels affection for someone, he
cannot purposefully change it without manipulation of
some sort. This is often referred to as “brainwashing”, and
can result in significant anguish over the lost connection,
and over love in general. This experience can either lead to
unhealthy behaviors, such as deliberately avoiding love or
close relationships out of self-defense, or developing unhealthy
coping strategies, such as drug abuse.
With a Ten-Foot Pole
The perception that one should avoid developing loving
feelings for another to avoid emotional catastrophe is one
that is linked to disorders such as OCD. This includes sex
addiction, in which some people will intentionally avoid
emotionally intimate relationships. They will replace these
with purely physical, impersonal ones. Emotional connections
are crucial to a happy life. The lack of these connections
often leads to loneliness, depression, self-hatred, and
other unhealthy circumstances. Sex addiction, as well as
others, may develop due to repeated efforts to provide distractions,
fill emotional voids, and cover up subsequent
emotions.
Unworthy
Another common result of strict religious upbringing is
excessive guilt. The religion teaches that certain thoughts
and behaviors decide the spiritual worth of an individual.
As children, each of us are naturally susceptible to curiosity.
In religious environments, certain subjects of this curiosity
41