Culture and O.C.D.

If you are roughly the age of 30, like myself, chances are high that you experienced the “ice salt challenge” phase around middle school. If you did, you know exactly what I’m talking about without the need to explain. If you did not, then let me explain. 

In the 90s, early 2000s, young people went through a phase where the “cool” and “popular” thing to do at lunch, was to sprinkle cafeteria salt on your skin, followed by pushing down a piece of ice over the salted area. This combination would cause a burning sensation similar to frost bite. The challenge was to see who could withstand the pain the longest. A red mark would be left on your skin from the burn. 

Before you go judging our 90s fad, I bet you had similar fads at this age growing up. For example, the tide pod challenge? Yeah, that’s what I thought! 

We all know how impactful our culture, and the latest “trends” can be to our mental, emotional, social, physical, and spiritual state. This is especially true when it comes to living with a disorder like OCD, that impacts the brains ability to process information. I find the correlation to some of our recent “trends” in society and a rise in mental instability to be of no coincidence. 

Though many of you may strongly disagree with me from this point forward, I want to share my personal insight as to how our culture can be destructive to our mental stability. 

Video Games

When I was growing up, the only “violent” scene on video games was when Yoshi jumped on top of the walking mushroom to squish it. The only “explicit” read in the nintendo jargon was a character that had a word bubble with symbols within it, representing a curse word ( example: &!*@ would float above a knocked out character or hover over a character’s mouth instead of an actual curse word). 

But now? Man. Video games include such violent, graphic, cold blood killing scenes filled with realistic looking blood, weapons, and straight up murder. Not to mention the amount of border line, or even full blown, nude images that can pop up. And don’t get me started on the language in most video games these days. 

Smart Phones

I remember the day when getting one alert on the pager attached to your belt was a big deal. There wasn’t this obsessive desire to check and recheck the beeper screen. You either felt the buzz go off, or you didn’t. 

But now? In a matter of seconds, our entire smart phone screen can be filled up with notifications, messages, and alerts. Our brains have developed un deniable addiction to check, re check, scroll, and check again. 

Music

Have you ever listened to popular music from when you were younger and thought, “Oh my word! I had NO idea that’s what that meant!” This happens to me and my friends all the time. We will be jamming to some good beats, and then say, “Wait, WHAT!? How did I not know that’s what this song was talking about!?” And although it usually leads to some awkward laughter, just think about that. 

The amount of vulgarity, explicit language, abusive, de-moralizing, and even violent messages that are so casually thrown into music the last 60 years, ought to bring shame. But it doesn’t. You know why? Because we have become so desensitized to what we are filling our minds with through music. You can’t tell me this hasn’t created a silent but deadly effect to the stability of the mind. 

Hollywood 

I heard my parents having a conversation one time about how when they were kids, Hollywood/T.V. wouldn’t even show married couples cuddling in bed as it could be improper. 

But now? What use to be rated “X” or “R” has casually slid into PG-13 or even PG movies. Even disney has started throwing sexual meanings into certain conversations for the adults to catch when watching with their children. Aside from the sex filtrated images being seared into our minds at such a young age, how about the graphic violence? You can literally sit and watch graphic abuse, fighting, and violence taking place with such realistic images as a young child. 

Accessibility 

Back in the day, men, and I guess women for that matter, had to work extra hard to access pornography via hard copy magazine. 

But now? Flip on the T.V., scroll through social media, download a new app on your smart phone, or simply walk past a women’s underwear store in a public mall and you will be bombarded with images. We live in an age of accessibility like never before. And yet, we wonder why divorce rates are sky rocketing, suicide is at an all time high, and addictions/obsessions are through the roof compared to previous generations. 

My Point? 

I believe all of these cultural shifts have drastically impacted the minds of thousands upon thousands of adolescents, and adults, causing a desensitization to occur in the mind towards these things that not long ago, were considered explicit, vulgar, and unacceptable.  This isn’t even stemming from my Christian upbringing. We can’t deny the impact that these cultural shifts are having on the development of the mind, emotions, processing abilities, and socialization skills. 

So how do we cope? How to we fight against the “norm” of society when the “norm” is clearly producing alarming effects? Check back right here in just a couple of weeks for my next post, “Give O.C.D. a Fighting Chance”.