OCD impacting all aspects of life

[LZ1234]

Hi,

I've recently been diagnosed with OCD and am seeing a psychologist. This is helping, however, I still struggle day-to-day to do normal things.

Someone in my family has come home a little bit sick and I immediately had an anxiety attack. I now can't leave my room in fear of catching the sickness. I have a fear of using the bathroom and kitchen and can't even go outside to get a drink of water in fear of it. I'm constantly living like this everyday.

I've never met or talked to anyone else with OCD. I'm keen to get some advice from someone who has been through it and knows how it feels. I've got a lot of people supporting me (eg, family and boyfriend) but I feel like they don't actually understand what i'm going through.

Thanks

[PamelaR]

HI LZ1234 and warm welcome to Beyond Blue forums

Thank you for sharing your story. It must have come as a surprise to hear that you have OCD. I'd imagine you might be feeling quite frightened. Especially when you don't know much about it.

There are a lot of members here in the community with experience of OCD, what we can help with is peer support around coping with your compulsions and stories of what has worked for others - please feel free to join in some of the discussions in the Anxiety forum to get started.

Also, Beyond Blue has a webpage for OCD. You can find this by doing a search in the search field at the top of the page for - Web pages Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (OCD).

Hope this helps in some way. You're not alone.

Kind regards

PamelaR

[smallwolf]

LZ1234,

Hi. OCD comes in many forms. While I dont have it in the same way as you might, my psychiatrist passed onto my psychologist I might have OCD tendencies. My main reason for responding was something you said in the last paragraph of your post about support. I had to explain to my wife what anxiety and depression were like for me. Everyone is different how how these things affect them. There are also pages on the main web site or supporting partners etc. which you might be able to give to those in the your support group to read. Again, you might still need to provide extra information. But the thing is this... in this time you can also tell them how they might best respond to you? This might help you bolster your support group. Also, if you get a chance the check out the pages that Pamela suggested, you will find other information. Again, as Pamela said, you are not alone here, and you should find the people here helpful and supportive. And while it might not seem this way, with seeing a psychologist, you will be getting tools to help you cope better.

Wishing you well,

Tim

[geoff]

Hello LZ, having OCD and struggling every single day is just so exhausting, I have to say as many people already know that I have OCD and had it for 58 years, so I can understand exactly what you are saying.

It's not easy for people who don't have it to know we have these continual feelings happening to us all the time, to them it doesn't seem to be logic and can't understand why we can't stop doing them, the answer is we can't.

I'm pleased you have joined the site because this illness has been talked about so much over my time on this forum, so please feel as though you aren't alone.

A lot of discussion has been about 'intrusive thoughts' where people with OCD have an unwelcome involuntary thought, image, or unpleasant idea that may become an obsession, is upsetting or distressing, and can feel difficult to manage or eliminate.

They become distressed by these thoughts and go to great lengths to get rid of them and try to prevent them from happening, an example is a thought of wanting to do something to somebody you love, this will upset you and can never know why they happen.

I wonder whether you are having these thoughts, and please don't worry you have support here.

Hope to hear back from you.

Geoff.