OCD Action

Truddles
Member

I did send this suggestion a while ago but received no response.
There are some really good poems about OCD written by members on the forum. We really are a talented bunch despite our problems.
How about making them into a small book to raise money, raise awareness with the public and to help OCD sufferers especially the newly diagnosed. How about a leaflet with a few of the more positive ones for therapists / doctors to give to newly diagnosed patients to give them some hope.
I've had to post this here as not been given password for the OCD website despite registering.
Truddles

Wed Dec 2 2009 12:49:48 #
Joel
Key Master

Thank you Truddles, I think that this is a good idea, I am going to look into how much it will cost and how many we can sell and get back to you.

Also, one you log onto this site, you should be able to post comments in any section that has "comment" boxes in. Let me know if this makes sense or call the OCD Action office for more help.

Thank you
Joel

Wed Dec 2 2009 15:03:22 #
Truddles
Member

Joel,
Thanks for replying.
Sorry I meant the OCD week website, my brain is seizing up.
I think that there is a lot of talent out there in the OCD community.
Thanks for a great site it's certainly kept me alive.
Truddles

Wed Dec 2 2009 15:07:42 #
xgotahavalittlfaithx
Member

i love the idea! please let me know if it gets going id love to contribute

Sun Dec 20 2009 22:45:16 #
Truddles
Member

What about a small member's recipe book?

I know that personally I have difficulty cooking because of my OCD and I suspect that others do too. In order for me to start cooking again I need recipes that are easy and mean that I don't have to take my eye off the food to get another ingredient (if I do have to take my eye off the food I wont eat it and I'm fed up with ready meals )

So how about collecting recipes that members find easy to do with their OCD. I'm sure that members have come up with ingenious ways of adapting recipes to enable them to cook with confidence.

Members probably also have favourite recipes that have been passed down in their family.

We need to eat healthily in order to cope better with our OCD and yet it's not easy.

This and the poetry book could be in a similar format to the newsletter.

Truddles

Wed Jan 6 2010 13:45:35 #
Wombat140
Member

That's a good idea Truddles, I'd never have thought of that. I suppose the difficulty is that different people will have different problems with cooking. But there can't be all that many possibilities, surely. Is it contamination issues that mean you can't take your eye off the food? Another thing might be that some people don't like using kitchen knives.
None of my own problems interfere with cooking, but if the project got off the ground I could send in some healthy (and nice) recipes that are dead easy.
Wombat140

Wed Jan 6 2010 18:23:16 #
Unregistered

Hi all

What a good idea Truddles.

Wombat, I could do with some healthy options as I am using far too many ready meals at the moment. I am a good cook but have got rather lazy lately.

Truddles, would they have to microwavable or have you got a combi microwave or conventional oven? Having said this, as many members may only have a microwave, we might have to cater for both.

Have a nice evening
Annex

Wed Jan 6 2010 18:32:09 #
Wombat140
Member

Truddles, I'm trying to come up with things you could cook, but I need to know a bit more about the OCD thing and how it works out in practice.
For instance, could you currently manage any of these?
* Two pans on the stove at once
* Baking things in the oven
* Leaving a pan of food with the lid on
* Putting food under the grill (if you have that kind of grill)
I'll send in some actual recipes when I've got more time. OK if I just put them on the forum? Maybe start a new thread for them.

Thu Jan 7 2010 22:02:07 #
Wombat140
Member

A couple of other sources of easy recipes, while we're waiting for the replies to start flooding in

Cooking in a Bedsitter, by Katharine Whitehorn. A reprint of an old classic. Recipes that can be done on one gas ring by an absolute beginner. It also has plenty of useful advice for those new to cooking - everything from what on earth "saute" means to what's the absolute minimum of pans you can manage with if short of space or money. Oh, and it's also hilariously funny.
Bear in mind that it was written in the 1960s, before healthy eating was invented. So unless it's been pretty largely revised for the new edition (which I haven't seen) you'll need to use it rather selectively.

easy one-pot (frugal recipes for busy cooks)
The lack of capital letters is not my fault. I haven't actually read this one, but it sounds promising. Available from The Book People (http://www.thebookpeople.co.uk, 0845 602 40 40) for £4.

All the best,
Wombat140

Sat Jan 9 2010 20:13:15 #
Wombat140
Member

I suppose if the recipe book gets done, it would be useful to combine the recipes with hints about how to get round various OCD problems with cooking. For instance, if you have difficulty using knives, there are gadgets you can get for chopping up vegetables and so forth, and some of them are surprisingly cheap. Come on everyone, handy hints at the ready!

I don't suppose you'd be allowed to put this in the recipe book, but Lakeland Limited have a very good selection of things like that, such as various "mandoline"-type slicers (no exposed blade, even when you take it apart for cleaning), things that chop onions and so on, and any amount of other things. They also pride themselves on answering all inquiries. I don't think they'd bat an eyelid at somebody asking if, say, something can be sterilized with boiling water, or has a sharp blade that has to be taken out for cleaning - whatever you need to know.
Thought I'd mention that in case somebody finds it helpful.
Wombat140

Tue Jan 12 2010 20:45:29 #
Nimrod
Key Master

"I don't suppose you'd be allowed to put this in the recipe book, but Lakeland Limited have a very good selection of things like that,"

You would be able to put that in the recipe book as you would automatically crediting it to the authors. Basically you can put anything in any publication or comment you make so long as you credit it to the person or organisation that produced it or it belongs to.

Caps

Tue Jan 12 2010 21:03:52 #
Unregistered

Great idea Truddles!! Though personly I prefer stories to poems... Do you think we could do a story one too?

Mon Aug 2 2010 20:40:15 #
Nigel
Member

Hi Truddles,

I would love to contribute with some poems and maybe a few new episodes of OCD Miami!

Please let me know how this progresses as I would love to contribute.

Nigel

Tue Aug 3 2010 22:47:54 #
Amz
Member

Truddles,

With regard to the cooking thing I think an idea might be to produce a recipe book that contains recipes that aid mental health e.g using ingredients with vitimins in such as

I was sent by my therapist a Mood for Food document and it details all the ingredients that contain the vitimins needed to aid mental health and lift moods etc.

Although on the mind website there is something like this but it is not a book and you cant buy it and keep it in your home.

I know what you are saying with the cooking it is hard for me too a few months ago I just gave up alltoghether and was eating anything that didnt require cooking e.g. cereal yogurts etc

My therapist would say to me now though that to not cook what you want is avoidance and that you should do it or you are giving into and feeding your OCD. I think that the recipe book you are planning might back up this avoidance to dealing with the problem head on.

But hey that is just my opinion and what you do on this website and the advice you give is wonderful I'm not putting you down at all.

Thu Aug 5 2010 15:41:48 #
Wombat140
Member

Well, I suppose if someone really didn't want to challenge their OCD they'd just eat cereal - like you did! Don't need a recipe book for that. The idea was to collect recipes that are real cooking but easier than some, OCD-wise, so that you can start with something fairly easy and work up. It's no good starting with something really difficult that you can't actually do. A good example is that banana pud I posted, that you can do with a plastic knife, a blunt knife or a sharp knife, depending where you're up to.

It might be a good idea to discuss this point in the book, though. What with that and the chopping gadgets, there's going to be a lot of notes in it. Maybe have recipes on the left pages, and advice on the right?

Of course, there's another use for all this in any case - most of us need easy recipes if we want to eat real food, because our OCD doesn't leave much time for cooking!

Mon Aug 9 2010 17:56:43 #
bingo
Member

Hey all, I'm back from the Stan.

Some great recipies here and I think they belong in two categories; one for your health; ie, that is things that are good for your body and OCD and two, ones that are good to eat. OK, so the good to eat ones are the ones that most of us would prefer to choose, but you have to feed the mind as well as the body, but I don't mean the OCD mind, what I really mean is that inner self that needs satisfying. OMG, what a long complicated sentence that was, hope it does not flip anyones OCD and I hope you know what I mean. Bet you don't, but it is my ambition to die healthy. I would rather die young after a short happy life than live to a long old age and be miserable.

Anyway, glad to see that lots of new people have found this forum and that it seems to be helping them. I've found it great and a massive help to me especially when I have been so far from home.

Bingo

Mon Aug 9 2010 20:25:17 #
Unregistered

I know that personally I have difficulty cooking because of my OCD and I suspect that others do too. In order for me to start cooking again I need recipes that are easy and mean that I don't have to take my eye off the food to get another ingredient (if I do have to take my eye off the food I wont eat it and I'm fed up with ready meals )

My OCD doesn't like it when the food looks funny or doesn't 'feel safe'. It's very confusing but a recipe book would probs be helpful. The only thing I can actually get for myself is cereal and even then I have to tip half the bowl out because some of it doesn't 'look right'. UGH! Life with OCD
eh?

Also, what about putting the poery to music and making them into songs? Sorrry, cr***y idea but I'm a music freak. (Elvis Presley FTW!!) And what do you think of the story book? Only short ones and maybe not just about OCD. We can have half of the book for OCD stories and half for a 'escape', stories that aren't about OCD. Sorry, I'm just obsessed with writing and reading.

***********

Kopa sighed, more tears spilled out of his eyes. He loved Anna with all his heart, or whatever part of his body he used to love someone with, she meant everything to him, but if he wasn’t a horse, he could not be with her. He couldn’t live a lie. He gave her a farewell lick and parting neigh and then he trotted, in a bull-like fashion out of the arena.

I'm terrible.

Thu Aug 12 2010 14:21:56 #