People who have fully recovered or are very close, what does “recovered” look like? Asking cause I want some hope for the future

I'm well along in my recovery and I'll tell you it's different than I thought it would be. For me, at first I felt an almost emptiness. My obsessive thoughts had been there for so long and I focused so much on my recovery for a long time that now, with them gone, a void was created. It was like, "Now that my thoughts don't bother me and I'm not chronically anxious, what do I do?" It was very liberating but almost anticlimactic. Now I'm doing ACT work to reconnect with my values on a deeper level and I'm feeling more purpose again and more like myself again! I'm laughing more, smiling more, singing more, getting back in touch with things I'm passionate about. That's a good reason why it's so important to stay true to your values while suffering with OCD. I still have the occasional trigger that will make me a little anxious, but using the tools that my therapist has given me makes all the difference. Recovery is possible and I know how awful it can be to suffer with OCD. You're not alone, you can do this!

The thoughts and images are still there (because that’s the reality with OCD and all mental illnesses) but they don’t affect me because I’ve gone through ERP and practice mindfulness every day.

Well, I fully recovered from Relationship OCD and what helped me was getting to the root cause of the fear. The root cause of the fear helped me understand myself a lot. It’s been 3 years since I had it, and honestly it helped me so much to just talk to someone about it.

Thank you to everyone for commenting, all of your stories give me hope!