OBSESSIVELY COMPULSIVE

ABOUT the film:  Obsessively Compulsive is a 3-minute film about the agony of intrusive thoughts in OCD. The narrator describes how whenever he thought of Saddam Hussein he thought that he might somehow contribute to the conflict in the Gulf. Walking, talking, eating, and drinking – all these actions had to be completed in the absence of an intrusive thought about Saddam, otherwise he would have to repeat the action again and again and again. He describes his exposure treatment, in which he places pictures of Saddam throughout the house and plays his recorded voice saying Saddam's name. The therapy techniques are successful in reducing the intrusive thoughts, but the thoughts then return another day, in another form.

WATCH the film (3 min) on Animated Minds.

DISCUSS the film:  After you watch the film, return here to join in the discussion at the bottom of this page.

REVIEW by Julie:  It is interesting to me that not only do our obsessions make us do things while the thoughts are in our head, they also make us do things in their absence as if one struggle is not enough. We may not all obsess that we are going to start World War 3 like Steve does but to those of us sufferers going through struggles like this, the topic of unwanted intrusive thoughts is just as important to us. Part of us believes that even the tiny, most mundane things hold as great as significance as World War 3. I really enjoyed this short and one of the things I liked most was how Steve was real and open and ended the film saying that even when one topic gets better it is never long until our OCD grabs a hold of yet another topic. OCD is not just one struggle about one obsession it is many obsessions about many topics and at times it seems like a never ending circle.

DISCUSS the film (in comments section below):

• How well does this short film describe the experience of OCD intrusive thoughts?
• The film describes exposure and response prevention (ERP) techniques, but in the end does not offer much hope. Is this a fair portrayal?
• This film is very dark, in contrast from the humorous films in our festival. Which do you think is most effective in educating the public?