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Here is a situation where the OCD form of magical thinking comes into play. Here you will see how OCD can pick up the most innocent of numbers and turn it into a fearsome force, and how it will interact with a sufferer of a superstitious nature.We join Craig , Matt, and Sarah. They are awaiting the arrival of a good movie and the pizza they ordered over half an hour ago! Of all in the threesome, Sarah is a superstitious thinker and she also has OCD. Before the movie, they are flicking channels just to fill time....
Craig : Hey, what’s this?
Matt: Oh, discovery channel I bet, some dumb programme about superstition. They always play these, they freak me out man!
Craig : Rubbish the lot of it! What’s this about? The curse of the number 7, lol! Even though that number is considered lucky, well, who thinks these things up?
Sarah: Turn it over, I hate stuff like that! Gets into your mind.. Turn it over, that film is starting!
Craig : Nah, 10 more minutes, lets watch this rubbish about number 7
Sarah: No turn it over! I hate this stuff, please. Grrr, where’s that pizza too?
Sarah gets up and walks outside looking for the pizza man, but as she is pacing around she starts to think about the small glimpses of that programme she did not want to watch. Of course, her curiosity made her have a sneak peek. Sadly, that peek/clip is replaying in her head. Number 7, err, I bet this will ruin my night with the lads now. I will be obsessing over it all night and I bet, the next number I see will be a 7!! I bet it will! I will avoid the registration of all cars in the street. I never knew it! That in the old days, 7 was a bad number. I thought it was good, lucky even, who started that rumour? I will check history books tomorrow. My magical thinking will play this card with me all night! Ahhh at last!! The pizza boy!! Arrrrrrrrgh, don’t look at the registration, Sarah. If I see that number next time, that confirms it; it is a bad number and I will have to make people safe again. I hate doing that but I can’t stand the ‘what if?’ factor.
PIZZA MAN: All right, love! That will be 7 pounds exactly!
Sarah: Shit!!! (Drops the pizzas)
PIZZA MAN: You all right, love? Did I say somethin’ rude? Breaking the bank balance is it? It’s only 7 pounds
Sarah: Ahhh, sorry, I am being silly, it’s just cold out here ...the pizzas will be safe. Thanks, bye!
Sarah has now confirms in her mind that 7 is now not a good luck number after all, but is a sign that says she better prepare herself for the worse. Maybe tonight she is special and she has been granted powers of some kind? Her OCD at this time is cooking up a storm to unleash. It is now ready to interlock dates and times and bring them to the front of her mind, giving her a heightened awareness; pure obsession with an innocent number!
Matt: At last, we have been waiting longer than an hour! I hope you knocked the price down, and I hope you didn’t tip him…?
Sarah: Hey, it’s ok, I made up the extra, quite cheap considering............. I nearly dropped them.
Craig : Come on, all round the table guys or are we eating them on our laps? Cuzos that film’s started. Hey Sarah, bring in the beers.
Sarah: If I open this fridge and there is a number 7 in front of me, I will scream.............. Ok, no. Well, ahhhhh, I am stuck
Matt : Beer!!!! Come on!
Sarah is stuck on the spot gripped by anxiety, she has the urge to open and close the door, she does it 8 times, 1 number over the 7. This is now her lucky number, which she hopes will get her out of Mr OCD’s new game. She does the act and opens and closes the door 8 times.
Matt: Sarah!!!!!!!!!!! Beer!!!!!!!!!!!
Sarah: Alright, I am coming. What did your last servant die of?
Craig : Lets turn the lights off, yeah?
Sarah: Noooooooo! I want to see what I am eating, the light from the screen won’t shine on all of us, it’s not the cinema, ya know.
They are all settled with food and the film. However, only 2 are enjoying the film, 1 is thinking, and taking part in a complex film of their own in their mind. Sarah sits quietly chewing her pizza as she goes over in her mind a plan to combat her problem. So I will make 8 a good number, I will cover 7 with it, the 8 will act as a good power over the curse of 7. I do hope my clothes don’t contain the number? She gets up from the table and goes to the kitchen. She looks at her jumper and the collar has the number on it!
Matt: Hey, while you are up, another beer would be nice thanks!!!
Sarah goes to the drawer, takes off her top and then cuts the label with a knife. Its safe! I hope the 8 will dominate, ha, that’s good!! THE 8 WILL DOMINATE! I will say that! That will protect me, and others, now where’s that beer for lazy?
Craig: This film’s great! I...... Ha! Your clothes are on back to front, what’s that all about?
Matt: Ha! So they are!!
Sarah: Sorry, it’s hot, I did not realise. I will go change.
Matt: She don’t like this film! Ha ha.
Sarah rushes upstairs. She is in a panic and her anxiety level is pushed up, she notices an aeroplane passing by the window in the distance. Her view is fantastic from her room, but the plane is now part of the magical thinking plan! She knows and feels that the sign may harm the passengers, maybe as she has looked at the plane. This small, absurd idea now covered in anxiety.
I looked at the plane, what if it crashes? That’s silly, but what with all this linking up, I have to be careful now. I will say MAY THE 8 KEEP IT SAFE. Sarah says this 8 times to see if she can restore a level of peace. It works!!! Now she goes to the cupboard and looks for a new top to put on, but now she is focused on looking at the labels frantically, and very obsessively searching. She starts to sweat. its safe!! Yippee, no number 7. What size shoe am I? 5!!!!! That was close! I hate this!!!!!!!!!! She sits on the bed to calm down. Her night is ruined, her friends are enjoying a film, while she has not only been a slave to them but to her magical thinking. Here she is rushed and tired, all she wanted to do was watch a film but she has be preoccupied by links that her irrational thinking has created. She believed them too, thus making an innocent number threatening.
Sarah slips on a t-shirt and walks back down the stairs. She does not count the steps, but at the bottom she says the phrase the 8 will keep us safe the same amount of times as before. This covers the number of steps just in case there were 7 or 17. She can now rejoin the boys and watch the film.
Matt: Hey, got it on the right way now?
Craig : You are one funny girl. Hey, what was the noise upstairs? Sounded like a plane crashin’ into the room.
Sarah: That’s not funny. Hey, i forgot something.
Sarah rushes upstairs again. She sees Craig’s mention of a crash as another sign, OCD is now linking all her unwanted thoughts together. She now says the words, ‘the 8 will make us safe,’ until her panic is gone. She then returns to the living room.
Matt: Hey, we were gonna have a night in and all you have done is rush around singing with your shirt on back to front. Are you all right or have you been at the wine?
Sarah: Well, I could do with a glass. I am so tired
Matt: Well, young lady, sit down, relax, and I will fetch you one ok?
Sarah: That’s kind. I think I will.
Craig : And allow me to put your feet up on this chair! It’s real comfy
Sarah: Thanks, that’s better. I am a bit silly sometimes, but I have had a bit of sorting and saving to do lol! So tell me about this film?
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