how do I tell my family I have ocd?? . I'm 20, I see them pretty much everyday and it puts a strain on my relationships with them because they have no clue what's going on with me. My mom (amazing mom but... ) can come across cold it's just her personality, she's had a hard life from many external factors and so she doesn't really understand mental illness and how someone can be 'unhappy' when they have a comfortable life. I come from a family of very very strong women and if I told them I feel like they'd just think it was an excuse/attention seeking. They're supportive people but not very understanding in mental health. I already feel very different to my family just based on my personality/values/view of life - this could potentially make me even more of a distance from them no??? how do I even tell someone I have ocd do I just say it???? pls and insight any1 can give soooooooo appreciated thank you

Im 21 years old, I had ocd seen I was 14 when it started it stopped me from telling anyone I have it. It was really bad at the time and I had no clue how to deal with it I even was able to kill myself at one point but decided to have hope it would get better. In time it did got better but I had no clue what was wrong with me and I didn't want to tell anyone. Until this year I finally found out what it was and my ocd started getting bad again but I'm doing better now. Is been 7 years but I really want my mom to know what I been through but I feel like if I tell her it hurt her and I feel bad for not telling her when it started. I just need same help getting the courage to tell her.

So I recently got diagnosed with ocd, and due to me growing up in a household who doesn’t believe in it I have an even harder time grasping if it’s a real diagnosis or not. I know it is but my parents still get mad at me when I tell them not to reassure me and things like that, since they don’t want to understand me anytime. They always put the blame on me and they do everything and how I’m ungrateful. I am very greatful but I told my mom to try to understand this condition but she refuses to, my dad just completely ignores that it exists. It’s just hard to cope around it and not be stuck in a loop, I’m leaving in a few months after graduating so hopefully that will help. It’s hard when my parents don’t want to try to understand what I go through.

My mom will sit and listen to me for quite a while, but she interrupts a lot and gets angry/upset. While I appreciate her passion, it's often stressful. Every time I come to her, if I even *mention* OCD, she gets frustrated and says, "Everyone deals with these issues, you know. It doesn't mean it's OCD." And I repeat, "I'm not saying my issues are unique — I'm saying the way I respond to them is a problem." But she just shakes her head and says, "Okay, I need to get back to my day." Full context, I'm an adult, and I live with my boyfriend, but I'm staying at my mom's for the next month. After living away from home for years, I went back to living with her during the pandemic, and I only recently left to live with him. Honestly, I think living with her for so long in my adulthood really messed with me and made me feel like a teenager all over again. I feel like my mental growth is stunted, and that's part of why my OCD is so bad lately. Not blaming, just noticing. She doesn't seem to understand how relieving the OCD diagnosis has been for me, because it explains so so so many things I've struggled with for years, and it's exciting to have more resources that can help me. But I think she sees it as me finding an excuse to *not* work on myself, which is just untrue. I'm not going to let OCD hold me back or use it as an excuse, but I'm also not going to pretend it's not a problem when I know it is — I was even diagnosed through NOCD. The whole point being to fix it, not use it as a crutch. When I have an issue, it's unbearable. Any issue, big or small, feels just the same. I feel a sinking feeling, my mind races, my heart beats out of my chest. I end up running to my support systems, crying, ruminating for days on end. Then, months later, the same exact issue can feel like nothing anymore, because it's no longer an obsession. I'm sure everyone deals with issues in a similar way, but I *know* there is something specific and debilitating going on with me. This is reassurance seeking, but in the face of being told I'm making a big deal out of nothing, can someone diagnosed with OCD tell me if they relate to the specific intensity of these feelings??