Anybody have nice recovery stories? Personally I don’t believe the whole “OCD is something you manage, not cure” thing as I think it’s just the medicinal companies looking to have you popping pills your entire life. Anyways, I KNOW that recovery is possible, and I know that it’s very inspiring and motivating to hear from people that has been in OCD hell that got out on the other side. So please, if you have any stories, share! I can give you a little story; my mom got herself some bad Harm OCD when she got her first child, my big sister, and intense amounts of anxiety from the OCD and agoraphobia too. In the last 20 years, she’s had two panic attacks. She’s over it! She’s out and about and haven’t known intrusive thoughts for ages

I am totally recovered, I was told there is no cure like you say only manage it. I am here to tell you can recover. I found these books excellent. Dr Claire Weeks

Wow thanks for sharing! I personally don’t have a success story (yet), but I like mark freeman! He overcame it and his view on life and mental health is inspiring!

I think the whole thing about 'manage, not cure' is largely because some people have expectations that aren't very useful. Like feeling less anxiety, or having fewer intrusive thoughts. That's not under anyone's control, and everyone experiences both those things. But you can definitely stop doing compulsions, you can definitely be OK with intrusive thoughts and anxiety, and you can definitely live a completely normal, happy life having OCD. The thing people really don't get as well is you have to work at your mental health CONTINUOUSLY, not just for a year in your life when it got really bad. That's like only exercising when you got really unhealthy, stopping when you got fit and then wondering where all your muscle went! For the record, I think I'm doing way better with my OCD and my mum also had ERP for OCD a few years ago, and she's sixty. So it's never too late!

I didnt fully beat it yet but Ive been dealing with ROCD sincd November and there have been days where I cant eat or sleep and Ive had long panic attacks. I still have my bad days, but I got my life back and Im excited about life again. I definitely think this will get easier and easier. It was all a matter of learning that the thoughts arent true. If they were, I wouldve acted on them by now.

I have many reasons to suspect that as a child I had scrupolosity. I thought that I was a terrible person, and not had an illness. I was constantly checking if I had done something offensive in church or if I had said something. It was horrible. I suffered in complete silence. I was less than 10. Then one day, it was gone. I don't know when, I don't know why, but it was gone. Much of these memories faded with time, but truly, I did nothing to get rid of it. I think recovery is very possible for ocd, but you're prone to get it again afterwards. For me, it was many years later. And also, I'm not sure about this, but I think that perfectionism is a trait of many people with ocd (not tidyness necessarily, but having high standards for things in general).

Yeah that sounds about right! My theory is that you’ve gotta had some kind of trauma as a kid, like a tragic event or like, very mild abuse that pokes at your self esteem. All the people I’ve known with OCD or any other kind of anxiety can all agree that they had some unsettling childhood experiences that built an unsecure base in their minds. I myself had a bit of both, and about a year and a half ago I went to therapy for overthinking (thinking back it was just Pure-O, but that doesn’t exist yet in my country’s diagnostic book) and the whole anxiety, overthinking and obsessing went away when I looked a little at my self esteem, beliefs and my self image. Then I kinda stopped believing myself again and woop, it came back 100x harder