One of the hallmark symptoms of obsessive-compulsive disorder is intrusive thoughts. All my life, I’ve felt their constant bombardment. My mind is like a crowded room, and the voices are all shouting different things.
“That’s not clean enough — it might be infected.”
“Did they just cough? Are they sick?”
“I don’t have enough of these things — what if the worst happens, and I need more?”
“It’s safer inside my house. I don’t need to go out.”
“Do they really have to stand that close to me?”
“Do we have to shake hands? That’s not sanitary.”
“We definitely don’t need to hug.”
I now see this inner monologue on the faces of everyone around me (who of course, are standing more than a metre away). Thanks to COVID-19, these types of thoughts are plastered across social media, as…