I wish OCD could be renamed. I wish we could wipe the slate clean and OCD was this terrifying new illness to the world that everyone would have to be educated and read up on… People need to understand what this vastly misquoted illness is actually about.

OCD as it is known to society today, comes with a vastly misconceived reputation. So much so that people who are suffering from OCD may not even realise they have it. They might never seek help and suffer in silence, perhaps even take their own lives at some point as a result. They may not read this website because they think it does not apply to them. Heck, recently for a short period of time I myself was one of those people. Despite knowingly suffering from OCD for many years, I didn’t know the extent of the mental illness.

OCD has no specific cause and there is no specific features of a persons background or personality that predicts who gets it.

 

Make you want to end your life. You more than likely suffer alone, unable to talk to anyone about it, even those closest to you, you’re scared, you don’t understand it, you don’t understand what’s happening to you. For treatment you have to rely on what others are telling you at a time when you don’t know who you are anymore or what to believe. You question everything. You don’t know what’s real and what isn’t anymore. Other people don’t understand the illness. Like cancer there is no guarantee that it won’t return or that you will get over it. You suffer from depression and lack motivation because you see no way out. The stress can affect your appetite at a time when you need strength.

 

‘OCD… that’s when you like everything really neat and tidy right?’

No.

OCD is in danger of become ‘cool’.

Over the last few months I’ve heard people in day to day life and seen people on TV

‘I’m a little bit OCD about that’.

‘Yeah that’s just my OCD’

I myself was shocked to learn that the thoughts I’d been having were also linked to OCD.

No one talks about the intrusive thoughts side of things, the focus is on the things you can see, the hand washing, the ordering, the hoarding