What's the difference between living with OCD and

OCD, like any other disorder or illness can have differing impacts on the people it affects. Everything is sort of on a spectrum, right? We know that often times people who have OCD report times in their lives where it ebbs and flows, so it makes sense that there are times when people may feel like it is completely gone or times when it seems to be ever present. I think that living in recovery means that you recognize what OCD is, you have the tools to fight it, and you live your life in spite of what OCD says.https://www.treatmyocd.com/blog/im-living-in-recovery-from-ocd-heres-what-that-means

Well, to my understanding the repetitiveness and anxiety comes from the compulsions feeding the obsessions and the cyclic nature of OCD. Ex.) I see a knife, I have an intrusive thought (obsession), I tell myself it’s okay (compulsion). I’ve learned I can’t handle it without my compulsion.

Hey thank you guys so much for your answers! I'm just really struggling understanding what did I went through this year. It was like really crazy for me. I had horrible intrusive thoughts that made my life just unbearable. I'm in a much better place since I've learned how to cope and about OCD in general. The thing is that I didn't want to a psychiatrist so I don't really know rather I have OCD or not and it makes me really to doubt myself even though I've been through hell living like this