I got my BPD diagnosis around three years ago (2023). I’d dealt with symptoms of depression since I was really young- these probably started around the time my parents got divorced when I was 10 or 11 years old. Going through several relationships in my late teens and early 20s, things really began to ramp…
Last year I was diagnosed with OCD, but my OCD manifests in a very specific way. In fact I had never heard of it before- I was told I had relationship OCD (rOCD). My original diagnosis was for OCD but my psychiatrist explained that I seemed to display a very particular form of the condition,…
I was 15 years old when I first dealt with suicidal thoughts. I was diagnosed with PTSD, depression and anxiety back then, which was followed by the diagnosis of Bipolar Disorder type 2 when I was 17. Because I was so young, I didn’t fully grasp what that meant. I just knew it would be…
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,…
I was diagnosed earlier this year with Obsessive Compulsive Personality Disorder (OCPD). The diagnosis wasn’t a surprise when it was explained to me what it meant, although to be honest I’d not actually ever heard of it before. But when the psychiatrist went through the symptoms with me, it made a lot of sense. Ever…
When people talk about paranoia, I don’t think they realise how all-consuming and life-limiting it can be. I have been told by my psychiatrist that I have at least traits of Paranoid Personality Disorder (PPD), if not the full condition, and if I’m honest I don’t know how much worse it would need to get…
When I was diagnosed with Intermittent Explosive Disorder (IED) in 2017 I had no idea what it even was. I knew I had problems controlling my anger but I never really saw it as a persistent problem. I thought getting angry to the point I would completely lose it was normal, especially as it wasn’t…
I felt ‘off’, for the lack of better word, even as a small child. I always felt that someone was going to notice that I am not ‘a real person’. I would say I was six or seven years old when those thoughts began. On the daily, I still feel like that- that I’m not…
My first memories of having OCD symptoms began at around six years old. I was an extreme perfectionist. One of my first memories of this was of doing a painting from Beauty and The Beast from a magazine and something went wrong- I coloured outside the line, and I started having a small panic attack,…
Looking back, the first signs of my OCD began to manifest when I was 13 or 14. I became very rigid with organising my personal belongings and having my room ‘just right.’ I also started compulsively washing my hands and showering 4-5 times per day because my skin didn’t feel clean enough. I had my son eight…