Any fellow Theatre ocd'ers? - Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (OCD) Message Board

WarriorPrncss · 09-29-2005, 03:53 PM

Okay, granted this is probably one of the worst things for someone with OCD to do... I volunteer at a community theatre.

I am a techie...all I have done so far is Stage Manage.... well... LONG story short... I was roped into being IN a play...

Like...going onstage and speaking lines...

Not so bad, right? Wrong. Maybe a normal person ...but for someone with OCD?

Here's the deal, my OCD is mainly focused on stress and anxiety and the mind set that everything has to be perfect.

Every rehearsal I go to... I am okay...that is until I start processing that I am actually going onstage in front of people and then critiquing myself on how I did.... And EVERYTIME, I freak out, and I obsess to the point where it makes me sick...now I probably can't blame this all on OCD, or maybe I can, but does anyone have any advice on calming my ocd ?

Or am I just in serious denial about this, because in reality this IS ocd and nothing is going to help...?

Maybe I just answered my own question...

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WarriorPrncss · 09-29-2005, 08:08 PM

I keep telling myself that, over and over in fact, I say "Ace, focus! When your onstage, you are Mayola May Felts, not Ace, the audience see's Mayola, not you..."
Yea, and then I obsess over and over on and off the topic... I just run myself in loops... My motto was, up until this show, "I don't go onstage until the lights are off or the curtain is closed"...

If I could, I would quit...but by the time we started getting into rehearsals it would have been REALLY unprofessional of my to just quit and also unfair to the other actors and the actor that would have to take my place. Granted the part is pretty small...still not right...

*hyperventilates*

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