can OCD develop later on in life?? i’m 17 and have always had rlly bad anxiety and i guess i’ve always known i had a little bit of OCD (since anxiety and ocd are closely related) but the OCD part of it has never been this bad. i would always worry, get reassurance from wherever i could, and that would kinda be the end of it. it’s never ever been like this before or hit me like this before. it’s almost like my anxiety has somehow turned into OCD throughout the years. is that possible?? can OCD develop or at least become way more noticeable later in life?

Yeap, actually that is very common. They say that a major event can trigger the OCD big time in some people such as going to college or getting married. For me was the birth of my daughter at age 24. I was one before that and someone different after it.

idk if this answers your question id say it's more like a wave from an ocean you can't find. i had ocd ever since i was five, so it's origins are unclear to me. it'll come and it'll not go, but fade, over and over again. like for example it hit me at full force last year and has been that way since. stress can definitely make it worse tho. with age, with the progression of life, comes stress.

completely. i’m going to be a senior and for as long as i remember i was always so scared of being a senior bc that meant growing up, going to college, and basically being on my own; which was one of the biggest anxiety things for me. now i’ve kinda noticed that the older i got, the worse it got. i would get a hold on things then lose grip, then get a hold, then lose grip again. it’s always been like that. but the weird thing is that i have HOCD and that’s not even close to what always used to give me to most anxiety and what i was always so worried about. idk, it’s all so weird. i’m just hoping that this won’t last forever and that it’ll eventually go away :/

yesssss! I am 20 and I've literally only just this year realised that I had OCD. I honestly just thought everyone thought like this, and asking for reassurance is a BIG compulsion of mine that I didn't even know I was doing. I look back now and every stressful thing I've been through has been due to my ocd. it's a severe anxiety disorder so it can develop from GAD/anxiety. I hope you have support around you and find this community helpful, please give ERP try when you're ready it's helped me so much and hopefully will for you too