OCD does not leave me as I walk through the school gates, it sits next to me in the classroom and walks beside me in the corridor. In exams it scribbles thoughts into my head as I attempt to scribble answers on to the paper. On the walk home it tells me stories as I try to talk to my friends. It’s always with me yet it’s the thing that makes me feel alone when I’m in a hall full of my peers. A hall full of my peers who don’t understand it at all.

I’ve sat through countless assemblies on mental health but they’re always the same. Illnesses like OCD don’t get mentioned, meaning people don’t leave school understanding them unless they’ve experienced them. Education around OCD has to increase so that people realise what it really means to live with this illness.