I hope you’ll take a minute to read my guest blog about recognizing OCD over at the lovely new site Of Fig Trees and Mustard Seeds, featuring devotions for those with mental illness, written by those with mental illness.

It begins:

There’s a poem I love by Charles Finn, raw and real, that reads:

Please listen carefully and try to hear what I’m not saying,

what I’d like to be able to say,

what for survival I need to say,

but what I can’t say.

I remember reading this poem aloud to audiences years ago, when I first began speaking publicly about obsessive-compulsive disorder; this was before I underwent the exposure therapy that God used to save my life, before I was able to even recognize that freedom from OCD was a possibility, and before I could imagine myself become a vocal advocate for OCD awareness.

Try to hear what I’m not saying. Yes. This.

In honor of OCD Awareness Week 2019, let me peel back the version of OCD the media loves to use (most commonly being either super-clean or super-organized) and look at the tender space beneath.

Read the rest here: https://offigtreesandmustardseeds.com/awareness-please-hear-what-im-not-saying/