OCD as a Survival Mechanism

These days we have a pill to prescribe for almost every neurosis. Experts argue back and forth about to what degree such disorders are learned, and how much is biochemical.

To me it's pretty clear that the predisposition for many disorders are inborn. We will be compulsive, we will be obsessive, each person has their issue. But it's not necessarily a bad thing. It's OCD as a Survival Mechanism.

Survival of the fittest means that the mother who is compulsively protective of her infants is probably the mother whose infants will survive - without getting eaten, falling off a cliff, or into a deep puddle and drowning.

So for millions of years, making sure the cook fire is out before we leave the hut, that there are no predators in sight waiting to eat us, and that we don't take unnecessary risks has kept us alive. We're neurotic. We spaz as a survival tool. It's what being human is all about.

My wife checks her car doors four times before leaving the garage. It's annoying, but guess what, the chances are pretty slim that someone is going to steal her car because she left the door open. Her battery is not going to get run down overnight because she left her lights on. And her car is more likely going to be where she left it in the morning thanks to her neurosis.