How Childhood Poverty Fueled My OCD
An OCD, chronic pain, and dermatillomania sufferer explains how growing up poor impacted her mental health.
Key Takeaways:
- The article was originally published on The Mighty on March 3rd, 2017.
- In it, Angela Hartlin details her upbringing, the onset of her OCD, and how she's learned to cope with it in combination with dermatillomania and chronic pain.
- Angela says that today she is more capable of passing through intense moments of internal conflict thanks to her combination of Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) and Acceptance Commitment Therapy for dermatillomania applied to her OCD.
For the first decade of my life I was brought up in a middle class family. My father worked at the local bus garage as a foreman while my mother stayed at home, raising my sister and I. Shortly before my 11th birthday, my father had an unexpected blood clot to the brain which ended up changing all of our lives forever.
With my father’s left frontal lobe affected, he lost his ability to use his right arm and walks with a leg brace and cane. His speech, short term memory and motivational skills were heavily impacted, causing him to be unable to return to work in any capacity. My mother had to become a caregiver to my father while trying to raise two daughters, which then became an incredible financial challenge.
While my father was hospitalized for six months, my mother, sister and I developed a closer connection. We were all trying to grasp the tragedy that happened to my father while coping with the aftermath of his brain injury. Knowing I needed to do my part with the shift in our family dynamic, we were told we needed to use our resources sparingly to afford groceries. This is where I believe most of my obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) traits originated from.
After having the opportunity to get treatment for my dermatillomania while on “The Doctors,” I’ve had to learn where each urge to pick my skin comes from and how I can simmer down this anxiety to prevent myself from engaging in the behavior. I’ve also had to recognize OCD has had a greater impact on my life than I initially thought. In order to try to break down patterns of problematic thinking, I’ve been confronted with many of my OCD traits — especially those related to poverty.