Do you have a gnawing need to find validation? Do you go to great lengths to alter the parts of your body that you do not like to ward off any insecurity or sense of dissonance? Do you work hard on the parts you want people to notice, while unknowingly sacrificing your real assets? Do you constantly notice in others what you think you lack, then compare with them? Do you quickly become depressed because you cannot get the attention or acceptance you seek? Does a single negative comment change your mood and bring you down easily, disrupting your work and relationships? Do you then cry even for no apparent reason? Have you been binge-eating or self-cutting, drugging yourself, contemplating ending your life, and still nothing you do can erase your loneliness or dis-ease? Happiness seems so elusive.
If you answer yes to a few of the above, you could be obsessing. Rushing, restlessness, repetitive intrusive thoughts, irrational, risky behavior are marks of obsession. That shows the locus of control may no longer be within you. That which we obsess we serve. We’re enslaved. Freedom seems elusive.
Could such obsession be behind the rapid boom (emphasis on “rapid”) of surgical beauty, sex reassignment clinics, and cycles of fashion trends? Unfortunately, instead of progress, there’s a downward spiral. How? The frenzy lifestyle feeds anxiety, discontentment, self-alienation, and the delusion that having class, power, wealth, and success alleviates pain. These materialistic solutions have been used in both capitalist and socialist societies. But these always increase disconnection with one’s soul and life’s true purpose. So these pursuits exacerbate loneliness. This irony is manifest in first-world societies where there is greater sexual freedom and the freest expression of oneself, yet suicide, loneliness and social isolation are on the rise. In response, countries like the UK and Japan have appointed ministers of loneliness. Peace becomes more elusive.
Small step: When in distress, try reading Psalm 40 and 90.