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Hi, if you’re new here, I’m Bailey! You are warmly welcomed into this haven for you (sensitive soul!) to feel celebrated in who you are, connected with your vibrant inner world, and to create your own philosophies for how you can live authentically, magically, & creatively ✨ with weekly digital letters from my enchanted creative world, to you :)
🕯️ “What’s beautiful is to recognize the beautiful home that people have who have OCD - not to wait until it’s totally on fire to say “how beautiful it was, let me watch it burn.”
I like to think that we have a connection to this very beautiful and special fire. And that when we can connect it, it’s like having fire in a fireplace that warms the whole home. But then when somebody doesn’t know how to help us contain that and know that we have a lot of it, it starts to burn the house.
And then we need not only help with taking that out, but not totally taking out all the fire because that fire is what keeps that house so beautifully warm.”
-Michael Alcee during our conversation on 20 Year Old Butterfly, the podcast 🌼
I have struggled with OCD since I was a very young child, with the shape it takes morphing and changing over time. It’s been debilitating at times, extremely emotionally painful, and an all around isolating experience. But it’s never felt random.
It wasn’t until discovering, by complete chance, Michael’s (psychologist & author of The Upside of OCD) work that I felt a huge weight lift off me that had been weighing me down for over a decade. OCD is hard enough on its own, but to feel that you aren’t a human being, that your brain is essentially broken & irrational, is an extra layer of shame & heaviness.
Listening and reading Michael’s point of view on the human behind OCD (a phrase I had never once come across in all my years of googling OCD), I felt seen and whole. I finally felt like someone was seeing me as a person, a human, a being - not just another robotic, clinical, unnamed patient who has OCD. And not only that, but that my deeply sensitive nature (which with I have been connected to for a very long time & am very proud of/grounded in), is actually interwoven with my OCD.
I’m so passionate about de-shaming mental health in general because our society tends to dehumanize and intellectualize mental health experiences which can make it feel so much worse. It’s ironic too - because so much of mental health is about how our body feels, not only our minds.
We are abstract beings 🎨
In part one of our conversation (this episode), we explored the nuance and depth that people with OCD commonly experience, how many people with OCD are deeply sensitive & highly existentially aware from a young age- and how it’s all intertwined.
We chat and theorize on why there might be so much resistance in the community around more nuanced ways of thinking, that take in the emotions that are underlying what the mind says. And how impactful creativity, expression, nature and connection can be in releasing all the things we hold inside.
It was a privilege, such an honor, and a massive delight to get to have not only one, but TWO conversations with the incredible, Michael Alcee.
Part two will be released next Tuesday! And for now, I truly hope you resonate with our conversation. 💛
Listen to this week’s episode here on Apple & here on Spotify !!! 🎙️🎧
Yay!! See you next Tuesday on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or right here on Substack! 🦋
Let’s connect with each other! 🩷
Connect with Michael:
Explore The Upside Of OCD - Michael’s (life changing) Book!
The Heart Of OCD - Michael’s Substack
Connect with me (Bailey!) :
Read where the name 20 Year Old Butterfly comes from!
(Music) Stock Media provided by marcozannone / Pond5
This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit baileycreativity.substack.com
