I need your help as I think that you know better than me. I recently heard about OCD and I realized that I have some symptoms. If that’s possible, can you please help me clear the situation and tell me if I have ocd?
1. I have depression
2. Obsessive thoughts enter in my mind and it’s not too easy for me to let them
3. Checking and rechecking things just to make sure that I have done them correctly
4. Brief relief if I let my obsessions “work”
5. A lot of anxiety
6. Annoying thoughts and pictures enter in my mind and it’s hard for me
( there are actually more but I don’t know how to explain them...)
If you can, please help me understand if I really have ocd
Written by
Clary_fray
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These are typical of OCD. I know it is difficult to get a doctor's appointment at the moment, but when you can do so, make an appointment and ask for a referral to a mental health team.
Intrusive and obsessive thoughts, and checking and rechecking are common in OCD. The main treatments are medication, which may or may not be appropriate for you, and CBT or cognitive behavioural therapy.
The trick OCD plays on us is to convince us that if we check just once more, or do a ritual again, then we will be satisfied with that. But it's like a blackmailer. The more you check, the more you do a ritual, the more OCD will demand that you do it again, and again and again!
CBT is about learning to put up with the anxiety, just for a bit at any rate, and understanding that it will go down again.
Perhaps make a start on CBT yourself with the aid of a self help book. There are many good ones on the market, and you will recognize many of the symptoms described as being like yours. Here is an extract from Overcoming Obsessive Compulsive Disorder. Do read the foreword by Paul Salkovskis which is very helpful.
It's a difficult condition to understand if you haven't got it. But there's no good reason why they shouldn't believe you. More people know about OCD than used to be the case. I can remember when practically nobody had heard of it.
Of course parents are worried about their children's health. But it's best they know. If possible be open with your friends about it as well. A lot of people with OCD are very secretive about it, and I'm no different, but I try to be open as much as possible.
Perhaps give them something to read about it, such as the downloads I've given you links to. Also, emphasize that OCD is treatable, that you're not mad, and that you can get better.
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