Olympian Fuchs is motivated to overcome her obsessive-compulsive disorder.
V. Fuchs Olympic Games Tokyo 2020
Because of her OCD, Ginny Fuchs may go through a dozen toothbrushes in a single night, throwing each one away when she determines it has been tainted. She regularly bleaches the soles of her shoes and spends hundreds of dollars a week on cleaning supplies.
So that she doesn’t have to worry about damaging the gym mats by doing push-ups, she wears baseball batting gloves whenever she trains with the U.S. Olympic boxing team.
Fuchs described obsessive compulsive disorder (OCD), which causes illogical thoughts and concerns to enter the mind and lead to repetitive, compulsive behaviour, as “like this black cloud that accompanies me every second of my day.” I feel that my obsessive-compulsive disorder has incarcerated my mind.
With this Knowledge,
Fuchs is preparing to travel to Japan next month to fight in the Tokyo Olympic boxing contest, where she will inevitably be in contact with the blood, sweat, and spit of the stranger across from her.
Fuchs is currently battling for a gold medal and raising awareness about mental health issues both inside and outside the ring.
She is resolved to be completely forthright and honest about a mental illness she has concealed for a long time.
Fuchs sees the irony in putting her in the turmoil of a boxing ring despite her condition. Her OCD has permeated every aspect of her life, yet it pales in comparison to Fuchs’ obsession with wealth.
Fuchs Explained why OCD is Illogical by Saying this.
It’s so absurd that it defies logic. Some of the puncher’s saliva or blood may land on me. And while I acknowledge it, I think my intellect can make allowances for it.
However, I will go into a panic if my phone is on the floor of my home for even two seconds. Holy crap, I’m not allowed to use my cell phone! Until I use a thousand Clorox wipes, nothing is clean enough for me.
Fuchs has Persevered through OCD and two Olympic Misses.
The 33-year-old flyweight, who almost missed out on qualifying for London and Rio, has finally punched her ticket as one of the world’s top competitors in her weight class this year.
Even though Fuchs is a gold medal favourite in a sport where success is highly dependent on luck of the draw and the opinions of judges, Fuchs’ obsession with perfectionism takes precedence.
Fuchs spent all of 2018 having difficulty and complaining that her OCD was “beating her every second,” yet she still managed to win bronze at the AIBA world championships in India.
She checked herself into a hospital in February 2019 and didn’t come out until after she had qualified for the Pan American Games, where she won silver.
Fuchs admitted, “I should have stayed there longer; instead, I left because I was afraid I wouldn’t be able to control my thoughts.” Although I was still able to compete, “I was going through hell on a personal and mental level.”
There has never been a better time for Fuchs to speak out against the stigma of mental illness than now, as awareness is growing across the sports industry.
Specifically, when four-time Grand Slam tennis winner Naomi Osaka withdrew from the French Open, Wimbledon, and the Olympics due to mental health difficulties, she was met with enormous sympathy.
In the PBS Documentary series “Mysteries of Mental Illness,” which Premiered last week, Fuchs spoke Movingly about her Struggle.
The project’s short-form streaming digital video series was a major motivating factor for Fuchs, who wanted to improve access to mental health care for marginalised populations.
This year, Fuchs was also featured on Oprah Winfrey’s documentary series “The Me You Can’t See,” which aired on Apple TV.
The film crew followed Fuchs to the Colorado Springs dorms of the U.S. Olympic Training Center, where she had spent years adjusting to life with obsessive compulsive disorder.
Fuchs urged people to “discuss about it” when he indicated that was the message he wanted to convey.
Please don’t feel guilty about this. Explaining your predicament in detail may help the other person empathise with you. In the end, that was the thing that helped me the most. Just talking about it helped me realise that there was a reason for my peculiar ideas and actions.
Fuchs first became aware that she had OCD when, in fifth grade, she became disgusted by what she thought was dirt in her backpack. Fuchs’ mother noticed the warning signals even earlier, and by the time she was in the sixth grade, Fuchs was having serious difficulties with anorexia.
Fuchs claims that during inpatient therapy for her eating condition in eighth grade, a therapist discovered that OCD was the underlying cause.
Fuchs’ OCD has the potential to completely consume her life for extended periods of time, but she has been able to gain control back during contests. She is at a loss to account for the inconsistencies and variations.
“I feel like I need to Clean up a lot more and take Another Shower,” Fuchs said.
But what I’ve learned is that time is most valuable for resting up for the next battle. Now, I can more easily put such concerns out of my mind and concentrate on the upcoming match and the chance to win the championship.
While Fuchs has attempted the cognitive behavioural therapy known as exposure and response prevention, she has been unable to devote sufficient time to it due to her intense training for boxing. After the Olympics, as she’s trying to figure out what to do next with her boxing career, she plans to start it back up.
For the time being, she is preoccupied with the difficulties that lie ahead in Tokyo, such as ensuring that the athletes’ village is well stocked with cleaning supplies to alleviate the mental strain of the foreign environment.
It’s going to be tough for me to relax,” Fuchs admitted. That much is true: “At least I know the country is incredibly clean.”
