October 2016

This week is OCD Awareness Week, and each day we will be publishing a different account of Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder.

As we conclude OCD Awareness Week, we promote the international flavour of the week, with this fascinating story from Audrey in Canada.

I am writing this article in the hopes that someone will read it and feel hopeful that they will be able to gain the upper hand in their battle with OCD.   

I am a 59 year old College teacher, happily married for 35 years, with 2 young adult kids.  I have battled OCD in one form or another for the past 34 years, with intermittent episodes during my childhood and adolescence. I would like people to know that there isn't a single approach to winning this war (and yes sometimes it has felt like a war). I believe that the answer lies in consistent, near-daily challenges to the behaviours and thoughts that underlie this condition.  In my case, medication has proven an invaluable help.  I have been fortunate to benefit from the expertise of excellent psychologists.  An extremely supportive husband has been at the foundation of my near-recovery. 

As a young child, I was obsessed with the need to be honest.  I remember having to keep track all day of things which I needed to confess to my Mom. The theme of honesty revisited me during my adolescence, though it was an intermittent struggle. The tenacious onset of OCD really occurred in my mid 20s, about one year after our marriage.

This week is OCD Awareness Week, and each day we will be publishing a different account of Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder.

During OCD Awareness Week we have heard some honest and candid stories from some brave people, some of whom have commented that they know they will always have to live with OCD. So we asked an OCD specialist to talk to us about recovery and if people will always have OCD. Professor Paul Salkovskis shares his view...

What to expect after good quality treatment for OCD: Recovery, Cure, Resolution or just learning to live with it?
By Professor Paul Salkovskis (Professor of Clinical Psychology and Applied Science, Department of Psychology, University of Bath).

For OCD Awareness week 2016, I have tried to briefly tackle this tough issue at the request of OCD-UK. This is just a short piece written quickly, so please forgive me for the various things I have undoubtedly left out, and for the misunderstanding which may arise from my clumsy phrasing. 

This week is OCD Awareness Week, and each day we will be publishing a different account of Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder.

Today's fantastically positive story is being published by OCD-UK volunteer Ruth, and is published with permission from her blog.

Dear OCD sufferer,

My name is Ruth, I am 47 years old. I was diagnosed with OCD when I was 24.  I believe I had it for a long time before that, but there was very little awareness of OCD back then.

I really wanted to write to you to let you know that there is hope.

This week is OCD awareness week, and I really wanted to write to you to let you know that there is hope, that I have been where you are now, living with severe OCD. I was in the depths of despair, believing life would only ever be a constant stream of terrorising and guilt ridden days. I have lost count of the number of people I believe I had either harmed through my mistakes or through carelessness. When I was at my worst every day I believed I had either seriously harmed or killed people through coming into contact with contamination and not acting responsibly enough. This was despite the hundreds of daily rituals, changing clothes every time I went out and showering several times a day until I could take no more, throwing away clothes and items I felt were too contaminated to ever be clean again, disinfecting shoes, my phone, handbag, my car – the daily rituals were endless, but they were never enough. However hard I tried to avoid contaminates, and however many times I showered and changed into clean clothes, I still believed I had left a risk to others lives, it was exhausting and I can still remember the desperate yearning I had for some rest from the thoughts of being a bad person that was selfishly not doing enough to protect others.

This week is OCD Awareness Week, and each day we will be publishing a different fact about Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder (OCD). We encourage our followers to copy the text and/or image and retweet/post across their social media pages.

OCD Awareness Week - Fact 6
The average age for OCD onset is early twenties in women and late adolescence in men, but can affect children as young as 6 or 7.