The Real Problem

Did you know there's a battle going on inside you? Yes, inside you. It's happening between the consumer in you and the creator in you. Guess who's winning? The consumer.

So, what's the big deal in that? It's beyond anything you have ever imagined.

Well, for most times in the past, humans have been part creators and part consumers. These were the average human beings. We all followed similar patterns, good education means secure jobs means happy family. Consuming moderately and living an average life was good enough. The one's that used to be full creators were the big achievers of the world. These were the innovators, the founders of large organisations, the famous artists, musicians among others. The one's who were only consumers were the ones that failed to do anything substantial in life. These were the drunkards/alcoholics, drug addicts, sex addicts, overeaters or food addicts and the one's who were sick quite often because of some addiction or the other. And these were the one's our parents and our elders used to warn us about.

But something strange has happened in the recent decade. With the advent of social media, technological advancement and this new type of culture-less culture has somehow made us tip towards being consumers more than creators. It's taken around 20 Years to get to this point but we're here.

When Amazon, Spotify, Youtube, Instagram, Netflix, WhatsApp, tinder, pornhub, bumble and many more that feed the consumer in us a variety of products, services and experiences grew substantially in size, it doesn't simply mean that our appetite for consumption has increased because the consumer in us is responsible for their revenue, it means that the consumer in us has gotten more control over our lives.

This means that the creator in us has lost control and our creation capacity has decreased drastically. The evidence is quite clear. Loss of productivity or an inability to be productive has been a major concern around the world because of distractions, lack of motivation or dullness and mental health issues.

The thing is, the consumer in us only knows HOW to consume but doesn't know WHAT to consume. The creator is the one that takes over, cuts the consumer out from consuming more than necessary and creates the life you wish to create by putting extra effort into work instead of consuming. But now, with the consumer winning each day, means the creator has no control anymore over the consumer.

Alright, hear me out. If you thought the mental health crisis was the worst thing to happen to our human race, you are about to have your mind blown. This is the mother of all problems, literally. It might just be the single greatest reason behind all our problems from distractions, dullness or lack of motivation, overthinking, mental health issues, to sickness, illnesses, diseases and even affecting our longevity.

No one seems to have put a name to it so I decided to do the honours. I call it Obsessive Compulsive Consumer Disorder (OCCD).

This is not a joke. This is bigger than any virus or war. This is self-destruction accelerated to the maximum. The rate at which this is going, it can pretty much wipe out our entire human race.

You need to understand something. It's not another mental health disorder. It is the source of all mental health disorders. Heck it's the source of every single problem we humans face today. Imagine this, the problem is not a bug or a virus, It's the operating system itself.

When the system goes into disorder, it collectively affects the mental, emotional, intellectual, physiological and energy processes all together. Thats why everything has gotten this messy. All our problems stem from the system itself. You're not trying to cope with anxiety or depression, you're trying to cope with your own system. The solution is not anti depressants or anti anxiety meds. You're trying to solve for the wrong problem. This is the mother of all problems. I repeat, the mother of them all.

Things have gotten really messy and it's high time we direct our attention to this.

What is OCCD?

Obsessive Compulsive Consumer Disorder (OCCD) is a condition where a person feels constant, uncontrollable urges, impulses and cravings to consume something or the other in excess. From scrolling content on social media to meaninglessly check WhatsApp, smoking, drinking, doing drugs, eating out more, eating unhealthy food and junk in excess, constant craving for sexual pleasure, seeking different sexual partners, buying more clothes, accessories and other products for the sake of hoarding, even if they don't need them.

This behavior is not driven by a need to relieve some anxiety or feel better temporarily. This is just the default setting. People with OCCD burn a lot of precious time and money leading to financial problems and impacting their daily lives and relationships.

OCCD features a pattern of thoughts and a pattern of urges, impulses and cravings for consuming more sensual & sexual pleasures than usual and material objects and possessions in excess. The thoughts of these urges, impulses and cravings are the obsessions. The thoughts lead to actions or repetitive behaviors of consumption also called compulsions.

These obsessions and compulsions get in the way of daily activities and are the cause of all distractions, dullness or lack of motivation and mental health issues, sickness, illness, diseases and even our reduced longevity. Not to mention our productivity, work, relationships, money and even the planet.

Ultimately, you feel driven to consume some pleasure. Even if you try to ignore or get rid of the thoughts or the urges, impulses and cravings, they keep coming back. This leads you to act based on ritual when the action keeps repeated over and over again, it becomes a habit and when the habit compounds it becomes an addictive ritual. This is the vicious cycle of OCCD.

OCCD centres around either distracting you from the things you need to do or dulling you so much that you don't feel like working or creating anything. When you have OCCD, it means that the consumer in you has gone out of control and begins to consume things that harm us more .

OCCD has been quietly taking over, affecting hundreds of millions worldwide and slowly compounding every day. Everything has changed forever because of advancements in technology affecting society and culture.