Christmas Message 

With 2025 on the horizon, we wanted to send you all festive greetings and thank you for being part of the OCD-UK community, and for supporting the valuable work of OCD-UK this year.

Christmas can be both a wonderful magical time of the year but with OCD, it can also be an equally challenging time of the year.  We can’t get away from that and I hope these words and the advice will help.

At this festive time, we are bombarded with myths of fun, laughter and that wonderful mystical magical time of the year. For some people with OCD, Christmas is exactly that and but for many with OCD, even participating and attending work or family get-togethers is challenging which generates a cacophony of triggers.  Despite that, some often feel social pressure to attend work or family gatherings where we force ourselves to wear a fake festive smile in front of a glittering Christmas tree as others chat seemingly happily with merriment.

Christmas can also be a lonely time and a painful reminder of the collateral damage that OCD causes and seeing social media posts of happy looking couples everywhere can be a loud reminder of how OCD has impacted relationships.

So, if you have had a hard year this year, please try and allow yourself to enjoy Christmas if you can. OCD takes many things from us, and the guilt it can cause can dampen joy, but you deserve to be happy, and you deserve to enjoy precious moments, either on your own or with family and friends. Christmas doesn’t need to be all good or all bad, so we hope that you allow space for self-compassion and be kind to yourself as you would to others and reflect on how far you have come this year, we are surviving, and our next stop is thriving!   It’s important we all, myself included, reflect on how we deserve recovery, and we deserve to be able to celebrate next Christmas without the shackles of OCD.

Reflections

This year my heart was warmed once again seeing the difference my amazing colleagues and volunteers made.  They educated, they supported, they cared, they showed compassion, they showed sensitivity, and they helped people feel heard.   I don’t have any magical elves here at OCD-UK towers, but I do have some lovely, kind, compassionate and wonderful colleagues, who at the risk of embarrassing them truly are wonderful angels that shine brightly all year round, making the world a little less dark and frightening for those with OCD.

So to my immediate colleagues I want to say thank you Laura, Mia, Sara and Zoë and our chair Catherine, not just for the work you do to help others, but who have all been there for me this year.  Most people don’t realise just how much work goes on behind the scenes, and at times it can be challenging and that’s where my wonderful colleagues have supported each other so well and supported me both professionally and personally at times.

Our fabulous volunteers work many hours to  be there for others with OCD.  OCD-UK is unique in being completely service-user led, meaning that the entire team have seen first-hand the devastation that OCD can cause, because the sad reality is that we have lived it!  It’s this lived experience which generates the passion and commitment to make a difference.

I was able to reflect on this throughout last week how the team and people that join our support groups are effectively strangers tied together by OCD, but have supported each other throughout the year, acted as each other’s cheerleaders, celebrated each other’s OCD recovery achievements, and offered a virtual arm around shoulders when OCD was shouting loudly.  That is one of the beautiful things I observe when I watch my amazing team at work each day, it’s a reflection of the kindness and humanity that many of those that suffer from OCD have in abundance.

Reflecting on my own OCD struggles, fears of sexual body fluids that can disable me and leave me cleaning with bleach for a couple of hours each time sadly is still with me as we end the year. You may be wondering why I disclosed that, and the answer is simple, each and every day I am in awe of the bravery of people with OCD that open up so candidly about their struggles. Therefore, I feel as the lead for this charity it's important I do not shy away from the reality of OCD either, and I hope by doing so, maybe someone will feel slightly less alone reading that. With that in mind, it’s important I recognise and accept I need help, so whilst I am too long in the tooth to make New Year resolutions, I am going to make one and that is to try and get access to more treatment. I hope that by doing so, in time it will help me flourish and enjoy life and maybe one day a relationship, without the restrictions OCD places on me.

Christmas Survival

If you are facing anxiety and uncertainty around festive gatherings in the days ahead, it’s important not to hide those feelings and even if you don’t feel you can express them with the people you are surrounded by. Perhaps you can reach out to that one person in your life who does understand, or alternatively reach out to charities like OCD-UK in email or on our discussion forums. The person you reach out to may not have the answers, nor may we, but please know that you’re not alone and sometimes when we  express how we are feeling, it can help give us clarity and face our challenges ahead having vented.

Self-care and self-compassion are so important during any stressful period where OCD is taking its toll. If Christmas is a time where you know you will find it tough, perhaps you can plan some self-help and self-care steps in advance.  Here’s my three suggestions, but please do email us your favourite ‘go to’ steps and we will add to the bottom of this article too.

1. Write down self-help or therapy steps that you know have helped in the past and have it ready to refer to if you need it.
2. Write down three mini small behavioural exercises that you know you can challenge yourself without feeling the need to carry out internal or physical neutralising compulsions after.  The idea being, that even if OCD is taking its toll in other areas of life which you don’t yet feel able to challenge, have three easy go to steps so you can challenge OCD in three different areas and give yourself some confidence.
3. Prepare your own self-care box, a bar of chocolate to teat yourself, your favourite bubble bath. A book (non OCD) you can lose yourself with and a list of 5 films or TV episodes you can watch and find comfort or laugh out loud funny. For me it’s a re-run of The Big Bang Theory for the third time this calendar year!!!

Finally…

As I mentioned at the outset, whilst for some Christmas will be a time for family and friends and fun and laughter. For others Christmas may be different with OCD as an unwanted guest.  The phrase I coined a few years ago, that ‘OCD doesn't take time off for Christmas and neither will we’ is why the charity will continue to operate throughout the festive period. We will be running support groups, and I will be covering the email and our support forums on Christmas Day for anybody that is finding it tough.

Just as we were for the last twenty years (2024 was our 20 year anniversary), in 2025 the ever expanding OCD-UK team will once again be here to help and support those affected by Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder and promote the message that recovery from OCD is possible.

Stay safe and wishing you all a Happy Christmas that allows you to believe in hope that 2025 will be the year that you can thrive free of OCD.

Wishing you good mental health.

Ashley Fulwood
Chief Executive of OCD-UK (and someone with lived experience of Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder).

Wishing you good mental health.

Ashley Fulwood
Chief Executive of OCD-UK (and someone with lived experience of Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder).