birdersmom
New member
Hello everyone! I'm neither a birder nor a photographer, but I've joined and am posting hoping that you will forgive me my intrusion and that some of you may be willing to help me with a problem.
My son is an avid and skilled birder and amateur bird photographer, but he suffers from OCD. He frequently suffers acute anxiety about the data of his bird photos having been somehow corrupted, and is plagued for days by agonizing indecision over whether he can trust his photos enough to share a sighting online or with friends. It makes me so sad to see this, because to his dad and me it is so obvious that these anxieties are ungrounded, and they are stealing all his joy in birding.
His latest agonies are over a potentially rare bird that he sighted and got good pictures of. The circumstances are rather silly and embarrassing, so he's unwilling to talk about it with birding friends; I'm hoping if some of you have time to answer, it may help him.
What happened was, he was out birding and -- the embarrassing part -- had to pee. There was no restroom around, so he peed in an empty bottle in his car. He accidentally got some on his hand, so he reached into the back of the car for paper towels but accidentally got hold of his sweatshirt before he got the paper towels.
Fast forward to when he got home: he went in the house, washed his hands, then went out to the car to get his camera, which was in a zippered nylon case. BUT -- and this is the part he is worried about -- in digging for the camera, he grabbed the sweatshirt that he had touched when he had pee on his hands, and he thinks he grabbed it in the same place he had touched it before (ie, where some pee had soaked into the fabric.)
He found the camera, brought it in, took it from the case and removed the SD card. He did NOT touch the metal part of the SD card at all, only the plastic casing -- and in fact, he touched that only with the hand that had NOT touched the sweatshirt. BUT, after he had inserted the SD card into the computer, the heel of the hand that had touched the sweatshirt touched the back edge of the casing. because of this, he has become convinced -- completely irrationally, in his dad's and my opinion -- that the data on the card could have become corrupted by some molecules of urine having somehow gotten from the casing to ??? the data storage area of the card.
Since then he has been made miserable by anxiety and indecision over whether he can trust the images of the potentially rare bird enough to submit it for consideration as a rare bird sighting. Besides contamination worries, OCD sufferers are often plagued by extreme scrupulousness, even over-scrupulousness, regarding rules, ethics, etc., and he is very concerned that the photos are corrupted and may be misleading.
His dad and I keep arguing that there is no possible way the data could have been corrupted by the series of events I have described, but he can't seem to trust us about it because we aren't birders or photographers; hence my appeal to all of you. I'm hoping if he hears from some people with experience in these areas, it will put his fears to rest -- if indeed his dad and I are correct in thinking the data cannot have been corrupted.
I know all this might sound pretty ludicrous, but believe me, it's serious to us! It kills my husband and me to see our son's love of and joy in birding turned into torment and anxiety by this frustrating disorder. So if any of you could offer some insight that we could present to our son, I'd really be grateful.
Thank you!
My son is an avid and skilled birder and amateur bird photographer, but he suffers from OCD. He frequently suffers acute anxiety about the data of his bird photos having been somehow corrupted, and is plagued for days by agonizing indecision over whether he can trust his photos enough to share a sighting online or with friends. It makes me so sad to see this, because to his dad and me it is so obvious that these anxieties are ungrounded, and they are stealing all his joy in birding.
His latest agonies are over a potentially rare bird that he sighted and got good pictures of. The circumstances are rather silly and embarrassing, so he's unwilling to talk about it with birding friends; I'm hoping if some of you have time to answer, it may help him.
What happened was, he was out birding and -- the embarrassing part -- had to pee. There was no restroom around, so he peed in an empty bottle in his car. He accidentally got some on his hand, so he reached into the back of the car for paper towels but accidentally got hold of his sweatshirt before he got the paper towels.
Fast forward to when he got home: he went in the house, washed his hands, then went out to the car to get his camera, which was in a zippered nylon case. BUT -- and this is the part he is worried about -- in digging for the camera, he grabbed the sweatshirt that he had touched when he had pee on his hands, and he thinks he grabbed it in the same place he had touched it before (ie, where some pee had soaked into the fabric.)
He found the camera, brought it in, took it from the case and removed the SD card. He did NOT touch the metal part of the SD card at all, only the plastic casing -- and in fact, he touched that only with the hand that had NOT touched the sweatshirt. BUT, after he had inserted the SD card into the computer, the heel of the hand that had touched the sweatshirt touched the back edge of the casing. because of this, he has become convinced -- completely irrationally, in his dad's and my opinion -- that the data on the card could have become corrupted by some molecules of urine having somehow gotten from the casing to ??? the data storage area of the card.
Since then he has been made miserable by anxiety and indecision over whether he can trust the images of the potentially rare bird enough to submit it for consideration as a rare bird sighting. Besides contamination worries, OCD sufferers are often plagued by extreme scrupulousness, even over-scrupulousness, regarding rules, ethics, etc., and he is very concerned that the photos are corrupted and may be misleading.
His dad and I keep arguing that there is no possible way the data could have been corrupted by the series of events I have described, but he can't seem to trust us about it because we aren't birders or photographers; hence my appeal to all of you. I'm hoping if he hears from some people with experience in these areas, it will put his fears to rest -- if indeed his dad and I are correct in thinking the data cannot have been corrupted.
I know all this might sound pretty ludicrous, but believe me, it's serious to us! It kills my husband and me to see our son's love of and joy in birding turned into torment and anxiety by this frustrating disorder. So if any of you could offer some insight that we could present to our son, I'd really be grateful.
Thank you!
