Living with OCD

Have you ever wondered if your child’s behaviors were typical fears and stresses for their age? Or noticed that they seemed more anxious than other

This is a guest post by Jackie Shapin, a Licensed Marriage and Family Therapist who specializes in anxiety, OCD, and eating disorders. There is a

It can be stressful to watch your partner suffer from a mental health condition, especially when that condition is as frequently misunderstood as

We're incredibly proud of the therapists in the NOCD network. While all of them are trained in delivering evidence-based treatment for

It’s common for people with obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) to wonder if its symptoms might change over the course of their lives. While everyone’s

As a clinician, I can tell you that everyone experiences obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) differently. But there are two key characteristics of this

While obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) is often misrepresented as a preoccupation with being clean and organized, the truth is that this serious, often

Frustration, sadness, and despair. Feeling like you’re trapped in a cycle. Everyday tasks seeming like insurmountable obstacles. While anyone who’s

I think that for most people who suffer from obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) or any mental health condition, there comes a breaking point. Eventually,

Obsessive-compulsive Disorder (OCD) can make it hard to distinguish between a true threat and an exaggerated one. The anxiety and unrelenting doubt of OCD

I knew ERP worked, after all, it helped me so much in the past. I knew I just needed to put the difficult work in and keep forging ahead.

I always thought that if I didn’t feel like I wanted to do something, leave the house, or do something that I had maybe previously enjoyed doing, it was me making that choice. Now I can clearly decipher the difference between me wanting or not wanting to do something versus the OCD telling me I shouldn’t do something. I don’t need to let OCD run my life...

Seemingly overnight, these thoughts became more and more intense. I was consumed with guilt over them. It snowballed into experiencing unwanted thoughts about harming my family; the people that I loved the most in the world. I knew I had to tell my wife. I needed to seek help.

My family was surprised when they learned of my OCD diagnosis, I didn’t have the stereotypical signs of OCD. I didn’t wash my hands for countless hours, I wasn’t someone who was super organized. To look at me, you would not suspect all of the turmoil that went on in my mind. This is one of the most frustrating parts of this disorder, people do not often understand the mental compulsions. Many people just see the physical compulsions and don’t really understand the “why” behind the compulsions. I didn’t even know that there was such a thing as mental compulsions.

The uncertainty I’d spent my whole life running from now feels exciting and liberating. I don’t need to know “for sure” before I move my feet. I GET TO MAKE MISTAKES. And that’s horrible and amazing all at the same time.

Something that has helped me along the way is no matter the content of the intrusive thought/feeling, I will ask myself “and then what”....you see, the story must go on. Play it out. Play out the worst case scenario. And then what happens… it always comes back to I just don’t like how it feels, and we know that life will go on.

I don’t remember a life before my OCD showed up, as some of my earliest memories involve (what I now know are) obsessions and compulsions. I remember being early school-age and feeling different from everyone else around me.

My life was going great. I was an award-winning college quarterback with a bright future ahead of me. But then OCD came out of nowhere and derailed everything.