First of all, thank you to everyone who’s subscribed to the My Acronym Life podcast from the CPTSD Diaries even though I’ve not created any content since September of 2023. Some partial disclosure is that I hit some very real burnout at work which ended in a mental health leave at the end of 2024. I just couldn’t figure out how to create meaningful stuff while keeping my shit together anymore, which I’m trying to not feel really stupid and guilty about. Ah the mental health journey. :)
But a lot has happened — I spent 2025 writing a real actual book which I’m currently working on my 3rd draft of AND I finally moved abroad which was one of my top life goals and deathbed regrets. Which is amazing and wonderful and ratcheted up my anxiety to a whole. Other. Level.
In the process of planning the move I came across tons of helpful articles and videos from folks sharing their experience. But I often had more questions or started to panic about small details that I couldn’t find or understand. At the same time in trauma therapy, Dr. X and I started to talk more and more about another diagnosis — OCD. I wasn’t surprised and have probably joked about having this in a somewhat perverse way for decades, but the truth is my OCD has been the most debilitating aspect of my mental health for some time. And I thought I’d like to write about the intersection of that and moving and living abroad because it seemed like maybe there was a gap there that I could in some small way fill.
I’m still trying to understand the overlap between CPTSD and OCD and anxiety disorder and depression. What came first? Does one cause the other? What’s the worst one? Which one should I work on first? And other questions that there simply aren’t clear answers to.
Anyway, thanks for reading and I hope you’re all hanging in there.
Warmly,
Alex
Solidarity in the OCD journey! I'm doing ERP right now and it's really helpful <3
Good to read and hear from you. Big move going abroad, i wonder where.