- Date posted
- 6y
- Date posted
- 6y
I also haven't been officially diagnosed yet as I see a private therapist who cannot diagnosed me so whilst they have told me I definitely have it, I need to wait to be diagnosed by the NHS. Don't feel ashamed though, it is something that you experience and a diagnosis will not change your experience. At the end of the day, it is just a label ?
- Date posted
- 6y
I mean...I've been diagnosed with compulsive behavior but not OCD yet because I've not seen an OCD therapist. However I still call it OCD because that's easier to explain. I would go to a therapist that specializes in this illness to get a correct diagnosis. And don't feel ashamed! This is just a part of who you are :)
- Date posted
- 6y
diagnosis is actually kind of a weird concept. having an “official diagnosis” can mean a lot of things, and there’s not always a strict guideline for it. for example: my partner has adhd, and has struggled their whole life with schoolwork and focus. so much so that they were pulled from school by their parents and homeschooled until college. adhd ruled their life, and a therapist of theirs diagnosed them as a young teen using the DSM-5 (google this if interested). they had a diagnosis from a therapist and a lifelong history documented, but when they got to college, they were denied academic help for adhd because they had not been given one specific test. but because they had already been diagnosed, the university mental health system wouldn’t perform this test on them. seems backwards huh? i guess what i’m trying to say is that “official” diagnosis is a concept that is used to withhold resources from people who need them. sure there are people out there who may fake having something or be wrong about their diagnosis, but it doesn’t sound like you are one of them. and even if your counselor and doctor are wrong/unqualified (i doubt it though) your symptoms are still something you face. many with ocd start as self diagnosed because our obsessions can be to shameful to discuss even with a doctor, and that’s ok! what matters is that coping mechanisms for used ocd help us. ok i’m done! sorry for the long response!!!
- Date posted
- 6y
Thank y’all so much. That was really helpful. I just didn’t want to make people think I’m one of those people who are just throwing ocd around when she hasn’t been diagnosed. Then again, I know that’s my ocd talking. I’ve struggled with 8-10 themes. I know I have it but I advocate on twitter a lot and don’t want to be discredited because I haven’t been diagnosed if that makes sense
- Date posted
- 6y
@Jen22 I wouldn't think you would be discredited, I used to talk quite a lot about OCD on Twitter too. I ended up coming off Twitter because it became a compulsion! I'm sure the people on Twitter will realise that your experience with OCD is valid, usually people will be able to tell if you are just throwing the term around and you definitely don't sound like someone who is! I wouldn't worry about that ?
- Date posted
- 6y
But how do you know you have been diagnosed? Do you know the process of that?
Related posts
- Date posted
- 16w
Hi I’m currently undiagnosed but am so sick of the way I’m living that I’ve decided I seriously need to get help. I need advice on 1. How to tell my parents that I need help and 2. The process. The first part is hard because a couple years ago I talked to my mom about having OCD but she brushed it off and said “everyone has anxiety” so I just never brought it up again. I’m also a bit ashamed for some reason, I don’t know why, to bring it up to them and I feel scared. For the second part what’s the process of getting diagnosed and getting medication and therapy. Where do I get diagnosed and do I have to start therapy before getting medicated? Thanks so much for the help.
- Date posted
- 16w
Ok, so first of all, I’m undiagnosed. However, I’ve been pretty certain for a while now that what I’ve been struggling with is OCD. My problem though is that it’s not easy to get diagnosed, and in some cases, it would require me to pay money. It frustrates me that I have to pay to deal with my mental health. Is it worth it for me to get diagnosed? I know I don’t need a diagnosis to start healing and working on these things, but I also don’t want to be “self diagnosing” the problem, because that makes me feel like a liar and an imposter. My other problem is that I fear my family doctor won’t properly diagnose me. I came to him about mental health related issues once before, and he read off a very generic list of mental health symptoms. when he got to what sounded like the ‘OCD’ section, we asked one or two very generic questions that had nothing to do with my themes, and since I couldn’t relate, I just answered no to them. He then told me I was fine, that I was just a “type A personality”, and that I was just being too hard on myself. I fear that my doctor might not be very knowledgeable or up to date on current information regarding OCD, and this might make it increasingly difficult for me to get diagnosed. Another problem is my symptoms seem to come and go. I often have an obsessive cycle that can last months at a time, and then it just goes away. Sometimes I won’t experience any symptoms for years. This makes me feel like I don’t actually have OCD or that it’s not ‘bad’ enough to be diagnosable.
- Date posted
- 13w
I'll start by saying, I have not been clinically diagnosed, as I do not have the funds to see therapists or psychiatrists in my current situation. Once I'm in a better spot, I very much intend to. That to say; after months and months of having issues with anxiety, specifically health related, my partner was the one that mentioned OCD. I did have some somewhat OCD related behaviors in my youth, though those likely could be explained by potentially undiagnosed ASD (as my mother is on the spectrum as well as a sibling, both diagnosed.) But I never considered OCD taking form in a health sense. I posted earlier about how I've had 4 days of pretty minimal anxiety and intrusive thoughts, and it has led me to doubt the OCD label I've been working at treating? I don't want to be the person that identifies themselves with a disorder they don't have, which is why I hesitate to self diagnose with OCD or ASD or anything else. At the same time, I've read that a lot of even clinically diagnosed people with OCD doubt their diagnosis. It makes me wonder if I will always have this doubt, and if that means it is worth it or not to get tested? I know that if I do, they can actually do ERP (whereas I've been self taught and self guided so far) so that would be worth it...
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