What advice would you give your past self if you could go back in time?

I went 20 years with untreated OCD. Nobody diagnosed me because I’m not “stereotypically” OCD. If I could go back in time, I would tell my 15 year old self, who was in therapy for other things, to get evaluated for OCD. It would have been great to have treatment for it. I accidentally came across my OCD as a diagnosis in college - I was in a psychology class, and we did a class on OCD, and going over the symptoms, I was like, “… wait a minute here”, and talked to my therapist about it. But 20 years I lived not knowing what the hell was wrong with me.

I was fortunate enough to find NOCD within a couple years of my intense OCD period. I had mostly mental compulsions, reassurance seeking and minimal physical compulsions. If I had to tell myself something, I'd point out self-compassion. There were moments I struggled so much to love myself although I am a very compassionate and empathetic person towards others. Self-love is still tough at times, but trying my best everyday!! I was doing talk therapy which was my major form of reassurance seeking. I can't go back and change that or bash my OCD untrained therapist for providing reassurance but I do wish that I could have been screened for OCD before doing talk therapy because it definitely made things difficult for me.

I would have told myself to seek ERP rather than work on resolving childhood traumas; I would have told myself how to distinguish between thoughts, emotions, opinions; and I would have encouraged myself to seek help, to communicate when things aren’t easy, to trust I have good people around me to support me!

I would tell myself to keep advocating for myself. If you are in therapy & you aren’t making progress, or something is always in the way, & you are not getting better, but you keep trying over & over again to explain what is happening in your mind all the time, & what it is like living with your thoughts, please seek out another opinion. Get checked to see if you have another mental health condition. I spent 10 years in talk therapy because I was diagnosed with depression, anxiety & ptsd. It never helped long for term. I never got better & my mind still continued to work the same way & cause problems so severely for me. A year ago I found NOCD & was officially diagnosed as having ocd & my journey here began. I see now that I have had ocd since I was a small child. I just never had the words to so accurately describe it so that someone would know that was what it was. I am 48 years old & been in the right kind of therapy now for a year. It makes me sad to think how different things could have been if someone had seen it a lot sooner. How many years of such intense struggle could have been avoided. No matter now though, because it is never too late to get the help one needs. Over the past year I have come a long way. I am doing better in some ways. I still have work to do & I am currently working on my hardest erp yet. Right now it feels pretty bad & I get pretty sad over & over again. But I’m doing the work & I am trusting that better is coming if I keep doing the hard work. Even though I have been in ocd therapy with NOCD for a year, feel like I am just now getting to what are some of my biggest fears & the things that I compulse about the most. So I would tell myself to keep trying & never give up. Keep advocating for myself until someone understands what I am telling them happens inside my head. Don’t just accept there talk therapy treatment if it is not helping still after 10 years. Dare to keep going on until you get the diagnosis & the treatment that you need. You are so worth it & you deserve to get better! That is what I would tell myself.

Hi everyone! I have been searching for community for OCD for a while, and I’m so happy I came across this. I was diagnosed when I was 8 years old. I would tell myself that the thoughts/fears I was having was my body’s natural reaction to what was going on in my head. I would tell myself that I’m not crazy, and that I just need to learn how to make myself better. This helps normalize the situation. This would have helped me not feel as tortured as a kid and feel less alone.

I would tell myself that I do indeed live to reach 30+ and that it is absolutely worth pursuing education and improving at hobbies like art and Japanese

I would say be calm. You spend so much time worrying there was days I cried because I couldn’t stop. I couldn’t do simple task because it would take me so long to do. Walking around my house I took so many steps in each room because I was aware of the number of steps the that number wasn’t never okay. I would tell myself to be calm and that your thoughts DO NOT make you. Enjoy your time on this Earth and love everything.

I wish I’d have gotten the right help sooner so it never got so bad every time it gets bad I went to end it all bc life doesn’t feel like it’s worth living with this fear.

Amen

i would tell myself to live more in the moment and stop being in constant fear of weight and not getting enough physical activity / not getting to my desired number sets i oddly count to , because like someone very integrated into my life says , i prioritize the wrong things the unimportant things , the stupid spasms i have over the fun and important events / people like i should be putting first . it’s all in my head and even if it’s not its not that big of a deal and if anyone judges you for anything they shouldn’t matter and you keep living your life with people who love the real you aside from the separate ocd that never defines you , do what your own true self wants in your heart and don’t listen to the mind of the ocd . all of what i do hurts so immensely the amount of pain is definitely top notch and i’m surprised i’m still standing here.

I would tell myself not to Behörde what others think about me and to put myself dvd my mental health first