The week that was OCD Awareness Week!

So this is it, the end of OCD Awareness Week. Was it a success? Was it worth it? Well for Ocduk.org, I hope so, as for me, most definitely. I've had conversations with people that have then wanted to learn more, found out that I have inspired and educated, discovered that I have truly amazing friends and family, and found I can be talked into the most stupid ideas (that don't even involve chocolate!!!!).
I'm proud that I am able to make a difference, even a small one, because I hope that the small changes will ripple out to become one huge change in the perception and treatment of OCD and it's sufferers. So much has already changed, but we need to be greedy, we need to be unafraid of asking for more. We deserve more!
With that in mind, we must not forget what is already being done, the changes that are already afoot. This week saw products being rebranded and saw people standing bravely together to make themselves heard. Many of my friends sporting an OCD Awareness Week banner on their Facebook pages, not because the sufferer from it, but because they believe in, a support, me. What a wonderful thing that is, to know so many care and appreciate me, I hope they know how much I appreciate them!!  And while we are on the subject, I want to show my appreciation for a man called Ashley Fulwood and his truly amazing charity www.ocduk.org. He and the charity do some outstanding work, including organising OCD Awareness Week, as well as support sufferers and guide them in the direction of help! This Charity and it's members are life changing, in fact they are life saving! I know this because they saved my life. They are always there when I need them, not to reassure (because we know that's a no no) but to support and help me, to even listen to my awful whinging and moaning!! I only wish there was more I could do to repay them.

You might think that now the week is over you won't have to listen to me bang on and on and on about OCD, but you'd be wrong. What this week has taught me, more then anything, is that it's an ongoing battle, that I must never give up on myself or on changing others perception of this mental illness. Sometimes it's easier to close your eyes to it, to joke about it, but it's time to change, it's time to get the word out,

OCD is a serious mental illness. It can be overcome with the right treatment and the right attitude. People with OCD have enough to deal with without being stigmatised, judged, humiliated or laughed at. Change a perception and we can change the world!