I was standing at the bathroom sink staring at myself in the mirror and asking myself the same question over and over. Am I losing my mind? I had just attempted to put a used (by me) toothbrush in my mouth and literally gagged. My bathroom drawer was filled with cheap dollar store toothbrushes, because I couldn’t bring myself to use one more than once. So I grabbed, brushed, threw away. Day after day. Every so often, in an attempt to defeat myself, I tried to use one twice. I kept losing.
Next, I would head out of the house and stare at the ground. I wasn’t afraid to make eye contact with anyone, nor did I despise seeing the sights, I had to watch where every step was placed. I couldn’t step on a crack, or take an uneven amount of steps on a clearly defined section of floor, or in crossing a room. If the steps got out of sync, I would either take a little stutter step to even them, or as I left the room, reach back and tap the foot that was one short on the floor.
Had you been watching me from a distance you might have thought my real delusion and issue was my belief I was Wonder Woman. Why else would a grown man be twirling in circles? The truth is I had probably counted four consecutive turns in a certain direction, and felt I needed to spin the other way to even it out. I felt an actual physical pull to even it out. If I couldn’t correct it at that moment, you better believe as soon as physically possible I would spin the other way.
These were the most profound things I focused on daily. I won’t even go into how things had to be even, turned the right way, and all the small things that would drive me nuts. This is the pain of living with obsessive compulsive disorder (OCD).
I was really starting to think I was losing it, and my big fear was how bad was this going to get. It seemed I was just adding things on little by little, and during times of stress all the issues were so much worse. So, I did what most people in that situation do. I tried medication. Did it help? Well, I worried a little less about whether I was losing my mind, but I still counted steps and twirled like Linda Carter. The only other thing the medication did, was make me a zombie with no personality and no ambition.
When the medicine failed, I just assumed that this was the way I would have to live. Then something surprising happened. I was in chiropractic school, and had a class on the philosophy of upper cervical chiropractic. It made so much sense to me, and as I was suffering from migraines, digestive issues, and severe low back pain, what did I have to lose?
I decided to become a patient of the doctor that taught the class. As I had hoped, my pain went away, my headaches disappeared, and my stomach felt great. The most amazing thing was one day I realized I wasn’t watching the floor anymore, I didn’t count steps, and I could turn anyway I wanted! Toothbrush you ask? I started keeping them longer than I should have. Hey, I had already spent a lifetime of toothbrush money, so don’t judge me.
My mind felt so free, and it turned out I wasn’t going crazy. Sometimes physical issues cause mental disturbances, and sometimes mental issues cause physical disturbances. I had a physical problem, the top bone in my neck was misaligned and putting pressure on my nervous system. This disruption caused my brain to misfire a little, and create the OCD issues that were starting to dominate my life. Once it was corrected, and my brain was free to work properly, they just faded away.
Over the last nine years in practice, I have had the honor of helping so many others that were dealing with the same OCD issues. A man came along, adjusted a single bone in my neck, and changed my life forever. What if the same could be done for you? Schedule a consultation with Dr. Lee Angle at Upper Cervical Health Centers of Fort Myers, FL today.
