As for a holiday: the girl was fired for long packing for work
Returning home from the subway to check the door, taps and iron is not a harmless habit at all. These actions conceal anxiety and fear that literally destroy a person's life. What to do if unnecessary rituals steal time and health, how to learn to trust yourself — in the material of Izvestia.
Understand and forgive
Most often, people hide their strange actions from prying eyes and try to adapt to them somehow. However, sometimes obsessive rituals acquire such power over a person that the quality of life is disrupted. According to the Telegram channel Shot, the Muscovite lost her job due to the fact that she was always late and performed her duties poorly due to constant anxiety. After that, the girl turned to specialists for help. She was diagnosed with obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) and prescribed medication.
The story of this Muscovite woman is more than just a special case — it can be called an illustration of how a mental state can destroy everyday life, relationships and career, says psychiatrist, psychotherapist at Dr. Isaev's Clinic Sergey Tarasov.
— OCD is an anxiety disorder in which a person suffers from obsessive thoughts (obsessions) and forced actions (compulsions), — explains the expert. — This is not just an oddity — it's an inner hell that consumes months and years of life.
If the diagnosis was established and the employer knew or could have known about the medical condition, then such dismissal can be challenged, Sergey Tarasov believes. The situation requires a more thorough analysis by a lawyer, a study of medical documentation, confirmation of the diagnosis, and possibly the conclusion of a medical and social examination.
From the point of view of psychiatry, rituals are repetitive actions that a person performs to reduce anxiety.
— In the case of OCD, this is not a habit, but an internal necessity, persistent and often strong and intense obsession, — explains Sergey Tarasov. — If a person does not perform the ritual, he experiences severe and acute anxiety or even fear of disaster. Anything can be part of the so—called ritual cycle - people check (and even take pictures) whether the iron is turned off, whether the front door is locked. Someone washes their hands repeatedly, even when it is not necessary.
— Rituals often hide unconscious fears of loss of control, guilt, and possible disaster. Moreover, sometimes a person is aware of the irrationality of these actions, but cannot resist them," Tarasov continues.
It happens that a person's life is ruined by almost insignificant actions — counting steps, touching objects symmetrically, avoiding "bad" numbers. According to the expert, the strangest rituals are those that directly threaten safety: eating inedible objects, repeated headbutts, and specific breathing practices.
"Men's rituals are more often associated with control and order (checking the performance of some equipment, repeated calculations), while women's rituals are associated with cleanliness, body, and relationships," says Sergey Tarasov.
Excellent financiers
Director of the Association of Personnel Development "People. Business. Future" Anastasia Yurlova believes that it is incorrect to judge the legality of dismissal without personnel documents, but in this case, two main scenarios can be assumed. The first is that they agreed amicably with the girl, and the final initiative to dismiss her came from her in connection with the systematic discomfort during job training. Secondly, the dismissal could have been initiated by the employer, most likely for repeated non—fulfillment or gross violation of labor duties (absence from the workplace without valid reasons), if the girl did not provide an explanatory note and could not convey to the employer the valid reasons for absence from work.
— For an employer, employees who cannot follow internal regulations and observe labor discipline are certainly problematic, — Anastasia Yurlova comments. — Nevertheless, employers are often ready to listen to an employee and, if there are opportunities, meet halfway and provide suitable vacancies or adjust working conditions for a person.
In this case, according to the expert, the key is to understand the employee's own needs as a person and capabilities as a specialist.
— In this case, as it is described, the girl had the onset of the disease, and she sought help after being fired and having a rift with her loved ones. The situation is not happy, but at the moment the Muscovite has the main thing — understanding what her diagnosis is, how to live with it further and what additional needs she has when looking for a new job," Yurlova continues.
If we talk about a specific disease, then, according to the expert, work as such is not a factor influencing the unfavorable course of the disease. Anastasia Yurlova believes that working in a planned mode and observing the boundaries of the working day and rest are even recommended for OCD.
— For a number of jobs, obsessive-compulsive disorder could be an advantage rather than a disadvantage in employment, — the expert believes. — People with OCD are very scrupulous workers who are valuable in finance, quality control, law, and in general when working with documents.
How to get rid of the habit of checking the faucet
Doctors believe that the main thing is not to tolerate the presence of rituals in your life, not to try to "make friends" with them. If actions start to take away hours of life, this is a reason to consult a specialist. Cognitive behavioral therapy, drug support, and so-called ritual prevention exposures help to effectively cope with the problem, Tarasov notes.
— Ritual prevention exposure is the gold standard of psychotherapy for obsessive-compulsive disorder. The essence of this method is that a person purposefully and systematically encounters situations, thoughts, images or objects that cause him obsessions and anxiety. This is done gradually, with the constant support of a therapist, starting with less disturbing situations and moving on to more complex ones," says the psychiatrist.
For example, the patient is tormented by the obsessive thought that she might not have closed the front door when leaving, which would certainly lead to theft. To calm her anxiety, she pulls the handle 10-15 times and takes a photo of the lock, that is, she commits compulsions. As part of the therapy, the therapist asks her to conduct a so-called exposure: close the door only once and leave immediately.
"The key condition is to prevent rituals: she doesn't come back, doesn't pull the handle, doesn't take pictures of the lock, and tries not to mentally replay the moment of closing," Tarasov comments. — Thus, the patient consciously refrains from performing habitual compulsive rituals (both behavioral and mental), which he usually uses to reduce anxiety.
In this case, the first attempts cause the patient great anxiety. But, leaving without checking and enduring the discomfort, she notices that the peak of anxiety lasts 10-20 minutes, and then begins to subside on its own. Nothing bad happens to the apartment.
— After several weeks of systematic exercises, starting with small steps (for example, getting into the elevator without returning) and gradually becoming more complicated (going on business), she learns from experience that her fear is unrealistic, and anxiety is bearable and temporary even without rituals. Compulsions lose their power, as the brain has "learned" that it is possible to close the door without rituals, says the psychiatrist.
Sergey Tarasov also draws attention to the importance of supporting loved ones — not to condemn, but to understand that this is not a whim, but real suffering and torment.
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