"If I tell you a secret can you keep it?"
That's how my ocd always starts the conversation!!
It's always a secret!
"If you tell anyone it will make it worse, just keep quite and do what I say"
It's a hostage situation, my brain is literally holding me hostage!
The problem really starts when you get an ocd version of Stockholm syndrome, you start to believe you can't live live with out the ocd, that you somehow need it, it's what keeps you/loved ones safe. That it's somehow helping!
How do you stop? How do you break away from something so ingrained into your life, your home, your brain?
The first, biggest and hardest step is recognising what's going on and fighting back. It's hard to break away, to give up something that you consider to be part of you. After all if you stop being ocd who will you be???
And that's the point! We are not OCD, we suffer from it!! But as a sufferer, the ocd can convince you that it's an intrinsic part of who you are. It can turn into quite the vicious cycle.
It takes tremendous hard work, great support and a network of professionals, but it can be done, it can be overcome.
Education is the key, mass education, not only of professionals, but of the general public too.
The more people that understand ocd, understand the consequence of ocd, the less stigmatised it will be.
No longer will ocd be the butt of jokes or a way to describe tidiness or neatness. The term "a little bit ocd" would no longer be acceptable, instead it would be widely accepted that ocd is a serious illness, one that needs to be recognised and treated as swiftly as any other illness.
The only way this can happen is by mass awareness, mass education.
Don't be part of the problem, be part of the solution
Get educated!
#ocduk
#ocdawarenessweek
#ocdawareness
#thatsocd
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