Note: Sorry for making it way too long. I would like to share some positive things that OCD had for me and it has in general to cheer up and show that how struggles like this can still benefit you. Disclaimer: Some of you might not find this relatable specially if you are at initial stages of your battle against OCD so don't worry if you can't relate, but those of us who managed to cope up with OCD and those who eventually will, might be able to relate to this. Most of this is coming from my personal experiences and realizations which I believe is present among general OCD sufferers. 1. OCD makes you mentally stronger. We all know the phrase "what doesn't kill you makes you stronger" those of us, who have managed to live with ocd, tamed it in certain way and carried on with our lives along with this monster, did and are mentally stronger than before. With constant negative thoughts across all themes that bombard our minds on a daily basis yet we persevere on our daily actions and tackle those thoughts. We overcome these negative thoughts and at one point almost become immune to a specific theme. For example, those who suffered with ROCD in the past and if it is not bothering them anymore, they can never get fooled by anyone telling them any negative things about their relationship. No one can break their relationship with any dirty tricks. Or those who suffered from Existential OCD, they probably have thought about every philosophical question that a single human brain can think of. Those who overcame scrupulousity cannot be fooled into believing that they are sinning if they know they are not and if there is no evidence. 2. OCD people are good at decision making. We are best at making calculated decisions. Because we live in a constant state of doubts, before we make any decision, our brain automatically calculates all the possibilities that can be taken before choosing a decision. Before we make a choice, we already have dozens of doubts in our brain about what the outcome might be if we take that decision. These doubts creates all positive-negative scenarios of the outcome and help us make a very safe or calculated-risk decision. This allows us to not suffer by being a victim of dumb decision making. Because we seek certainty, we stay safe most of the time while our peers suffer from doing dumb things. 3. We are good at reasoning, debating and arguing. Realize that we are always in an argument in our mind against our thoughts, we are always reasoning with our thoughts, even through compulsions and reassurances, we are constantly learning new things. Because of this constant argument with OCD, OCD somehow has trained us in reasoning and argument. We have practiced arguing so much in our mind that people in real life becomes no big deal to us, our thoughts have better logic than them. 4. It is true and tested that on average, people with OCD tends to have higer than average IQs. (Look it up) We are smarter and have huge potential, we just need to channel it properly and productively. Average intelligent people can never even comprehend questions that comes to minds of those with Existential or Scrupulousity OCD, questions that are in reality very intellectual and philosophical. Our self esteem should not be low if we are this good. There are people in this world that wish they could have the ability to comprehend questions that we ponder about. That they could think deeply like us. We shouldn't be feeling low. God/Nature only gives harshest struggles to those that can bear. We have been chosen to struggle with this because we are that strong, because we can overcome, others would snap and collapse if faced by this. Our minds, specifically our minds are more complex than others. And even anatomically, our brains are more active than others. While a human uses 10% of the brain (I know this myth is debunked) at a given moment, we use over 50%. Brain scans of normal and ocd brains reveals we have greater region of activity in our brain than a normal brain. Look up brain scans of normal vs ocd brain. More area in our brains light up than a normal brain. Its like we are literally superhumans with superbrains, too bad we can't use that brain power to shoot lasers with our eyes. (Although this brain activity doesn't give us any superhuman ability, this somehow adds a cool effect to my analogy ?) But the point is, there is so many positive traits we have, without which we would not even have OCD and we overlook these things. We should remind ourselves about these and lift our morales up, and put on our pants and show OCD that we are stronger than it is. We are better and we can persevere. That the low self-esteem upon which OCD preys on will not be there anymore. That we will persevere, persevere and will persevere. And we can do that cause we are stronger than the rest including OCD. ?