Susan Senator

About 25 years ago, I suffered from acute Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder. It took the form of going back and checking. Really ugly stuff, I’m not going to describe it here. Until I had a very wise therapist who really understood — that, combined with Prozac, and the day came where I felt the tormented tickle of “you better turn around and look,” yet I walked on.

Moving forward is particularly difficult for me because I often still dip into obsessive-compulsive disorder. Now it is not the way it was back then, it is more of an idling, stalling engine. It stays put, rather than whipping me backwards. In other words, it is bearable. But that, combined with my sharp and heavy mood swings, make it a challenge to see my way out of the chaos that is my life. I hear things on two levels, all the time. I hear the meaning the person is trying to convey, while I hear all the lifelong messages in my own mind — emotional clouding of the picture, checking and re-checking the words.

This condition is worst when it comes to Nat. I have conversations about Nat and I’m parsing the intended message, right along with, “Wait a minute, is this message I’m hearing okay? What did I do, is this my fault? Did I screw something up, or did they?” Right away it’s either-or, right away I’m defensive and really it’s all because of fear. I get afraid that my whole world is going to collapse — usually in terms of Nat. I go right to “okay, a bad thing is happening, just like always, what did I miss, what should I do now?” It is so hard to sit and understand, to sort out the actual important message that I’m supposed to hear. I can do it now, with great effort. And my husband Ned’s cool water, his ability to stay clear.

My panic about how the world is treating Nat — and by Nat, maybe I mean me? — is ingrained, layered into my skin, muscle, and blood. Like any new mother, I held him so close because that was my job, but unlike many non-autism mothers, I never let go. I couldn’t. And so my own development took a turn as a young woman because I had a baby that no one understood. My child has struggled to learn, to grow up, and to move away from me but I have been SO afraid to let that happen. So neither of us has grown completely in that sense. I’m not saying I was right to be this way. I’m saying I can barely help it. You could say it’s a co-dependent thing Nat and I have. Even when he’s pushing me away with man hands, I let him, but I feel my stupid veins stretching right back out towards him, looking to reconnect.

Having a child no one gets is probably the most elemental scary thing that can happen to you as an adult. It’s no coincidence that my OCD began when Nat was a toddler. You have this fragile, beautiful innocent little being in your care, you seeded him, nurtured him inside your own body. You made him. And now he’s kind of being rejected by the world. Well, that’s how it felt to me, I think. It’s a Refrigerator World, not a Refrigerator Mom. The Mom is the opposite of the Refrigerator, she’s a hot oven that has no thermostat.

Every doctor had a theory, and when it didn’t apply, they shrugged. Every school had a dogma, and when Nat continued to defy their ethos, they kicked him out or they held on but their anxiety was transmitted to me. Now I don’t even expect people to understand Nat. My wounds for him are just weakly scarred over, lumpy and prone to ripping open again. Even when I have evidence that people do understand and care deeply, there’s a part of me that remains unconvinced, the OCD part. I never have had the feeling of sweet, deep rest. I have never been able to let go of him entirely.

It is not healthy for either of us, each being so tangled up in You.

People smile at this and say, “well, sure, you’re the mother.” But I don’t think they get how it actually feels, to be the one and only for someone you love with the force of a hurricane, an earthquake, a tornado, a shark attack. So when he’s out of my sight, I am always always wondering — will he be safe?

Am I consigned to always be dealing with Nat this way? How do I heal? How do any of us heal the ravages wrought from ignorance. My rage at the stupid ignorant world pours down on all of you and then it’s all rained out. Then, out of nowhere, I’m bizarrely hopeful again. Flying by the seat of my moods.

And so with Nat, I go in a loop. It’s relationship OCD.

Will I ever be able to walk on, to believe in his wellbeing, without looking back?