“OCD intrusive thoughts latch onto things that are most important to you.”

It was the summer of 2004 when I first began to notice symptoms of OCD. I had just finished my music degree and was looking forward to a summer of fun and memory-making with my friends. A few days later, I started to feel a bit anxious but I didn’t think anything of it.

Unfortunately, a few days later, the anxiety intensified to such an extent that I suffered from intense panic attacks for most of the day. Intrusive thoughts followed. Horrible, vibrant intrusive thoughts. With the powerful thoughts came powerful compulsions. The OCD train had well and truly pulled into the station.

I had mild OCD symptoms for the age of four, which didn’t impact me too much. However, after I completed my degree, my OCD erupted and I knew that I had to seek help straight away. I received CBT (Cognitive Behavioural Therapy) and ERP (Exposure and Response Therapy).  In CBT, one of the main strategies is the four Rs which I found really helpful in managing my OCD.

Although these forms of treatment lasted a long time due to the severity of my symptoms, they transformed my life. They enabled me to live life to the full again. When OCD rears its head, I have the tools I need to keep it at bay. I’ve also found other things that help, like music, which is a huge one. Medication is very useful too, as is sleep, eating well, rest and exercise.

OCD has definitely made relationships with family and friends more difficult over the years. OCD intrusive thoughts latch onto things that are most important to you, and this very much includes relationships. But therapy and wonderful friends and family make it easier to manage.

I think the biggest misconception about OCD is what OCD actually is. For example, some people think it is about being ‘particular’ or having things a certain way, and that everybody is ‘a little OCD’. There’s nothing little about it. In fact, it’s mentally and emotionally crippling and debilitating, and causes enormous amounts of anxiety.

The best advice I can give to someone with OCD- or to someone who knows someone with OCD- is to firstly seek professional help and secondly, to remind them that things can and will get better.