Hi EVERYONE. My FIRST post on here. I follow and participate in all treat my ocds pages. They are GREAT. The severe onset of my ocd started when my father had a severe heart attack 16 years ago and I almost lost him. I then started incessantly worrying about his safety and texting and calling him constantly. My obsessions then also turned in compulsions and doing things to counteract my thoughts thinking it if I didn’t do those things that my father would die. It lasted for approx 10 years. Then it turned into worrying about my spouses safety. And overall I began obsessing about death, safety, and fire. I’d constantly check things. About 3 years ago I started going to therapy and taking a low dose of lexapro. It started helping slowly. The only problem was that I found that once I was able to rid of those obsessive and intrusive thoughts, new ones arose. I then became obsessive about other things and very anxious. For instance, if I’d text my best friend and she didn’t respond, I’d think I said something wrong and she was mad at me. My brain would race until she texted me back thinking I did something wrong or if I couldn’t take the anxiety anymore I would text again and then say something unintentionally to get her upset or frustrated. I almost lost her friendship multiple times. She encouraged me to go back to therapy and learn coping skills and gain confidence in the good person that I am. I am grateful that she is in my life and such a strong support system for me. It has been a tough friendship but she helps keep me in check and has taught me that sometimes people can’t answer “on my time” or as fast as I “want”. We had a long talk one day, and when we got a mutual understanding of each other and each other’s lives, everything changed for the better/ when she realized that my obsessive nature wasn’t geared towards her but rather an obsessive nature in general it made her feel better. Sometimes we fixate on people or things for an unknown reason. I’m happy to say I’m 90 percent better thanks to therapy and my friends help. I still worry and my brain still races at times but I have learned how to better cope and when that doesn’t work, I get ahold of my friend and she calms me down. A great support system is key. It’s such a great help. If the stigma of ocd wasn’t derogatory or looked upon as either a fictitious disorder, I would have seeked helped sooner but the fear of being mocked was overwhelming. Especially being in the psychology field, and seeing and understanding many disorders, I see what people deal with every day. It’s easy for outsiders to judge. We have to be strong and remember that we may have ocd but ocd doesn’t DEFINE US! Be strong everyone!!!!!