Their Obsession

[Serafin Sonnier]

Itseems that OCD latches onto the very things that are important to a person and that they value the most. It stands to reason then that these topics would change from time to time. As we grow and develop, our belief systems are challenged, and we evolve. We start to look at the world from different perspectives. We are no longer the same person that we were. This happens time and time again as we walk through life. It is inevitable.

As we change and shift, so does OCD. The way in which it once was able to torment and debilitate you, no longer works, so to speak. This is why I often say that OCD is cunning and creative. This disorder targets what you find important.

OCD will look different for everyone. OCD can be very specific and unique, and it can also be elusive and vague. Some people experience very particular obsessions and compulsions, while others will say there is no specific thought, just a generalized feeling. It is important to recognize that regardless of the way that one experiences it, it is still OCD.

Remember the bottom line is that OCD wants certainty, it wants to insert doubt about who you are and what you are capable of. The catch is that it will never be enough. It is an impossible feat. That is why we need to learn that no matter how horrific or distressing the content of the thoughts may seem to us and how strong the pull for certainty is, that we do not need to engage.

Getting to the point of non-engagement required exposure and response prevention (ERP) therapy, which is the most effective treatment for OCD. ERP helps you resist compulsions, which only relieve anxiety temporarily, and teaches you to accept uncertainty, no matter how upsetting and distressing the thought, image, or urge may seem. By resisting compulsions as a response, you retrain your brain to recognize that you are not in actual danger. The goal of ERP is to learn to manage OCD effectively and to provide long-term relief.

ERP therapy is an active form of treatment and requires intentional buy-in from the member through participation in exposures, a willingness to feel discomfort and honesty with their therapist about their obsessions and compulsions (even if they believe they are shameful or taboo). ERP therapy has been proven to effectively treat people with OCD. About 80% of people with OCD experience positive results, and the majority of people experience results within 12 to 25 sessions.

Over the past couple of months, Dartmouth has maintained a relatively good reputation with regard to campus protests, especially when compared to peer institutions across the country, such as Columbia or USC. This is a dynamic I explored in a previous column and one I largely attribute not to any administrative response, but rather to a relative lack of protests on our campus. I attribute the latter, in turn, to geographic isolation, fast paced school schedule and a small student body.

This reputational boost was no doubt welcome news and likely a reprieve for Beilock, the new President of a prominent school still settling into her role. It would logically follow, then, that Beilock and her team would have a vested interest in maintaining this reputation. After all, we saw what happened to university presidents who were grilled in front of congressional committees about their initial response to the protests. University of Pennsylvania President Liz Magill resigned after facing mounting pressure from donors, and Harvard University President Claudine Gay was mired in controversy that undoubtedly hastened her resignation.

After two crew members drank seawater and began hallucinating, one announced that he was going to find his car, while the other said he was headed to 7-Eleven for beer and cigarettes. Both stepped off the raft and were torn to pieces by sharks. Later, when a third died from her injuries, the remaining crew briefly considered cannibalism, then eventually rolled her body overboard to its gruesome fate.

Wes published scientific papers, but he also began growing his Instagram presence with tales from the field. Once, during a season in Bryce when Jeff worked as his assistant, Wes shimmied into an 80-foot-long den to tranquilize a half-awake, 350-pound black bear. Jeff thought this was totally insane but followed along anyway. When Wes jabbed the bear in its shoulder, the drug was slow to take effect, and the beast gave chase. The brothers reverse-wiggled in high gear. Once outside the den, Wes tackled the woozy animal before jumping on its back and dosing it again. A National Geographic photographer was with the brothers that day, part of a story on millennials working in national parks, and he took a hair-raising pic of Wes and the bear inside the den. The image went viral.

Wes researched an incident in British Columbia in which a hunter was badly mauled by a grizzly. In the summer of 2020, the guys recorded an episode and aired it, with low expectations. They were thrilled when 2,000 people downloaded it. The next show was about a tiger that escaped from the San Francisco Zoo in 2007, later attacking three men. This was followed by episodes involving black bears, an alligator, and a great white shark. With each one, their audience grew.

Then came a kick in the stomach. The niece of the hunter mauled in Canada contacted Wes. She was livid. The episode had gotten several facts wrong, and the tone was too flip. Her uncle had lived a difficult life with disfiguring facial scars, she said, and he deserved better.

Some listen for practical advice; a few claim that the show has helped them avoid backcountry danger and even saved their lives. One fan in Southern California, a snakebite victim, said she was given more antivenin in the emergency room after she insisted that Wes had said to take more until she felt better.

Last spring I joined the guys at the Larson family cabin, where they sometimes record episodes. Our agenda called for staying up late and watching something like Anaconda or Snakes on a Plane. But record snowfall in Utah had knocked the chimney off the cabin and cracked sheetrock inside. Staying overnight was out of the question, so we headed back to town for plan B: hanging out at Hogle Zoo in Salt Lake City.

Near the end of our trip, inside an atrium full of colorful birds, Mike became transfixed by an especially glorious pink resident, and I caught a glimpse of another reason listeners find Tooth and Claw irresistible.

I agree that the issue of nepotism deserves discussion, and that it is an injustice that pervades our society. However, the flood of nepo baby celebrity critiques has drowned out crucial discussions of nepotism outside of Hollywood, along with a broader conversation on systemic advantages resulting from white privilege and wealth disparity. Especially as many who are participating in the conversation are themselves white and wealthy, this conversation is not forcing them to reckon with their own privilege.

Nepotism often combines the privilege of whiteness and wealth which affect a far larger segment of society. The conversation around nepo babies leaves out people in wealthy and white families who gain advantages even without familial connections. White and wealth privilege provide more than just Hollywood or political opportunity. These privileges come into effect in more commonplace successes, such as gaining financial security, education, and employment. As a result, white and wealthy people, even those without a familial network, have an easier pathway to wealth, power, and even basic living conditions, than non-white and non-affluent people.

For the white and wealthy people who have jumped on the nepo baby trend, it is more comfortable to discuss the famous parent to celebrity pipeline than to acknowledge their own privilege. But white and wealth privilege, and the ways that certain people are able to gain success and power, or just a basic quality of life and baseline health, without the barriers that others face, needs the audience of the nepo baby.

Actually, that's an understatement. Most people dread their work. It's a chore. Something to be avoided. This is a common social consensus. In order to make sure "work" stays out of their "life" big, neon-orange biohazard tape is slapped on it.

Well, a while back, I started getting sick of always worrying about keeping my work and life separate. I started to question this taxonomy. What if work could be joyful? What if you could actually look forward to the work you do?

I asked those and many other questions. What I ultimately realized is that yes, you can do work that you're passionate about. You can choose something different. You don't have to live in the way you've been told.

The prospect of waking up excited every day (instead of in dread of going to a boring job) has been something that has consumed me for the past year and a half. And in June of 2009, after a year of sweat and a bit of fun, I made that dream a reality.

Each day now, I actually wake up excited to start work. No, I'm not kidding. I eat and breathe what I do. For me, there are no boundaries. And the only way I've done that is by being obsessed with what I do. I don't think I could have done it any other way.

The type of obsession I'm talking about is simply put: hunger. A burning, unexplainable desire to explore every single facet of your chosen pursuit. No stone unturned. No border unexamined. Every piece pulled apart, studied, and carefully put back together.

Number two: When you're completely obsessed with something, you tend to spend a lot of time with it; you progress and excel very quickly. And when you're extremely good at something, you become an expert. You can leverage that expertise to gain credibility and authority, and provide others with a lot of value.

Your hunger will fuel you. Because that's what it really takes to make getting paid to do what you love as work. If you're not hungry, you might as well opt-out now, because I can assure you there is someone out there who is.

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