Personally, Dax’s words reminded me of a wonderful personal essay I read in the Cut called “Could I Still Be Ambitious Without My OCD?” In it, the author poses a question I and many others have wondered: What if treating my mental illness makes me less successful? It’s a way of thinking that will ultimately cause the OCD to thrive in ways that will ultimately be detrimental.
For me, I try to separate the harmful experiences (such as obsessions about losing my job) from the positive (I am also a passionate person who cares a lot about my work). I can be in OCD recovery and still keep those positive things because I am successful despite mental illness, not because of it.
None of this even gets into how success is defined in terms of capitalism, and I would humbly argue that wealth, accolades, or praise are of little worth if you’re tortured inside.