Does anybody know the statistics for our friend OCD? Does it goes worse through the years or is there any chance the symptoms will become more manageable as the time passes by ?

It takes time. I hope you're aware that you're asking for reassurance, which is a compulsion that will just keep you in the cycle of OCD. No one can tell you with 100% certainty that you will feel completely normal again (I know this is a trigger, you need to sit with the uncertainty of not knowing). Do your best and results will come. Knowing the answer to that question doesn't change anything.

there are many statistics out there, but anxiety and ocd are very individual experiences. from my point of view, ocd is entirely in your hands. statistics that say ocd is chronic dont equal that it is, but simply that anxiety disorders sometimes last really long because anxiety itself makes you stay in your comfort zone, even what that comfortzone is far from comfortable. i, too, worry that ocd is something i’ll never recover from, but i also know i dont do erp enough and that i keep going in the same circle, so theres my answer. if you want to overcome ocd, you can. if you dont try and break the cycle, the websites that say its a chronic disorder would be right for you.

Hi! OCD can flare up any time you go through a big change, or something stressful like a loss happens in your life. I went 6 years without relatively any anxiety. It came back when I had a loss in my life. I'd never gone to therapy for OCD (and didn't know I had it) so now I'm more prepared for when it tries to flare up again in the future, and I won't let it get out of control. So basically, yes, it becomes more manageable when you have the right tools.

^^^ exactly. It's your decision, just like anything else. You can choose to put energy into productive ways to get better (ERP) or you can put energy into fueling the cycle everyday and inevitably get worse. Don't let OCD make this statement scare you, just stand up to OCD and decide that you're going to get treatment and stick with it to the best of your ability. In that case, it would become more manageable.

I’ve done CBT, I’m on medication so i’ve already made my decision but still I want to know will I be ever normal me again

theres also this universal psychological rule that what you give attention is what you’ll have more of. ive kind of always had anxiety, but for most of my teen years i didnt really give it any thought on a day to day basis. i went to therapy for ruminating too much (it affected school and so on) and i got way better. at the last therapy session my therapist asked me if i wanted to talk about my anxietu and i went “my what?” and she was like “your anxiety, it says here in my file” and i was all “ooooh that! its just a little emetophobia, ive had that my whole life, it doesnt bother me at all!” and she was very proud and happy for me and mentioned that the patients she treated felt very differently about anxiety, and that she felt there was no need to say more when my attitude towards anxiety was very healthy (i felt like anxiety couldnt affect my life at all). now, this anxiety stuck with me and after not being in therapy anymore, the next few months gave me some big challenges and naturally, i was anxious. i gave this some more attention and i remember that i started writing down notes about it and i was reading up on how to deal with this. i’d never done that before. i ranted about it on tumblr and all that. from february to june (last year) a lot of big stressful events build up and clashed at the same time (the start of june) and a burnout from stress and sudden ocd hit me like a truck. some of these symptoms naturally made me worried, and i feared that the depersonalisation i was feeling from the burnout was a sign that i was depressed (this felt like a huge threat because im always so happy and upbeat and very optimistic in life). i started googling to look for some sort of reassurance that what i was feeling was nothing to worry about and boy did i make it worse. suddenly, within days, this anxiety/ocd took up many themes (the ones i still struggle with today) and i was fucking mortified! i had never had anxiety do me dirty like that, and it was hitting me exactly where it hurt the most (my values, my joys in life, my dreams/goals and interests). now i feel that anxiety has a hold of me and i worry 24/7 everyday about it, and im desperately trying to avoid it. before this, i felt like anxiety was like a couple of pennies in my pocket, and now it feels like im towing a truck with a rope tied to my waist. pretty much my point is, before the whole ocd thing i viewed anxiety very differently (and sometimes in a rude way i couldnt sympathize with people that whined about their anxiety cus i was like “you decide what it gets to do to you!”) one of the things i also believe set a really good foundation for ocd was that i was starting to let insecurity get a hold of me when i was dating this mysterious guy. it was the first time i was ever dating someone, so i wanted to make sure that i was perfect. essentially, ocd is the deepest of the deepest form of insecurity. ocd and anxiety didnt have the right kind of soil to grow in my mind when i was confident, very comfortable in my own skin and was very set in my beliefs. because of letting insecurity mean something, having big parts of my life change (shaky foundation), ocd could suddenly blossom. so pretty much to boil it down, let ocd worries be there, but give your active attention to what you want more of. second, start buildinh up your self esteem and self worth, and take a critical look at your self image. whatever people say about ocd being genetic, chronic or only something to manage is only an opinion, not a fact, in the same way that i believe ocd is just deep rooted insecurity that can easily be changed. ive seen my self esteem blossom drstically two times in my life and boy, did it make so many things so much better i know that im probably not a good candidate to hand out advice about curing ocd when im clearlt still suffering from it, but i can tell you what was different when i didnt have ocd, as well as knowinh about my moms recovery story (pretty much the same)

http://sciences.ucf.edu/psychology/childrenslearningclinic/wp-content/uploads/sites/91/2013/08/OCD-2014-Handout-Slides.pdf

Recovery is very possible. I would not recommend focusing on statistics, if it said 99% of people get better, your ocd would probably say, well I’m gonna be the 1% that doesn’t. Know that with proper treatment and determination you will feel better and go forward from there.

I feel so tired and wasted today...this is hell