Hamster Preparations

I’ve made so much progress in sorting through my possessions and either selling them on eBay, giving them away through Freecycle or throwing them away if they weren’t useable. All of this clutter has a tangible affect on my thinking, which I’ve always known but the pull of OCD was stronger.

Overcoming OCD to be able to get stuff done isn’t a case of overcoming OCD by itself nor trying to ‘push through it’ (which doesn’t work when it’s so acute), but some combination of both in order to break the catch-22 cycle. The therapist is giving me the moral support to put into action all of the insight I’ve had for so long, with which she’s been impressed! Insight is useless when you’re lacking moral support.

I’ve been able to challenge the things I couldn’t do which really began with the blood donation appointment, and trying to engage with people more again through general messaging and wordpress. I had a 3 week gap over christmas without seeing the therapist, which in itself paid for most of the hamster stuff I need. It’s still a £400 investment in total though, in order to meet the rigorous science-backed standards these days, and the standards of Happy Hamsters UK— which are a 20 pages long PDF!

Just as big of an investment for me was the space, given my limited amount of space! Freecycle is a revelation. When you see the kinds of things people are offering on Freecycle, it really makes it easier to donate things because you can be assured that if you find yourself needing something you’ve given away, you can probably get it on there! And the Karma will come back haha. It’s incredible how quickly people respond to you wanting the most mundane things. It’s just so easy to get rid of stuff that way.

It took a lot of imagination again too to figure out how I can rearrange my flat to fit in the hamster enclosure, which will be 1.15m x 0.6m x 0.6m. And since it will be so big and heavy it’s going on the floor, so nothing can go above it. Then I need storage space for giant bags of bedding. It multiplies!

As I give away and sell stuff I replace it with hamster stuff 😁. The eBay income is really helping to pay for it as well which is satisfying.

My Happy Hamsters UK region has just taken on 10 baby hamsters, besides the 4 they already had waiting! And now my therapist and friend are hurrying me up to get a hamster too 😆. I want a hamster but I hate indulgence and endless deliveries! But a hamster needs a home 🥺.

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My friend says I should get this hamster, though I’d rather adopt one of the ones waiting longer if I can. Ultimately it’ll be up to Happy Hamsters UK to give me a shortlist of suitable hamsters :).

🌪