What do you think about telling your family you have or think you have OCD?

I think it’s so important to tell your family, if you feel safe, about your OCD. You deserve the support and understanding they can provide you with. They can be a key aspect to your recovery and help you with all forms of treatment. I couldn’t do this without my family. d a i s y

I told my parents about my intrusive thoughts. It was really hard but I’m grateful that I did because they have been very supportive and they have been there for me.

It is entirely up to you. If you feel comfortable to tell them then you can do so. If you need to tell them in order to get treatment, then that gives a lot more reason to do so. I have struggled with OCD for about 10 years and have only ever told one person about it. And that was only about a little over a year ago. I believe I read somewhere that the average amount of time between the onset of OCD and seeking treatment is a decade. Which is crazy, but I understand why that is the case. Moral of the story: If you need to tell your family in order to get treatment, I strongly urge you to do so. You have nothing to be ashamed of with having this disorder. It has taken me way too long for me to realize that. None of us asked to have this disorder.

I agree with pineapple :) it’s entirely up to you. If they understand and are supportive, that’s awesome. However not everyone will understand or want to hear it or be willing to be supportive. That’s also ok. The key is to gravitate towards those people who support and love you through this and those people are out there! It might take a few bad experiences sometimes but I found it’s actually a good way to filter out the assholes :)

It depends on the person and your family life, mine was a genetic link to my dad bc he has it so he was sorta supportive? He told me to just get meds with no therapy and I was like “uh no” idk if my dad did erp but I do know that if he got off his meds his ocd would be so much worse.