How did you guys find out you probably had ocd, diagnosis or no diagnosis? I haven’t been diagnosed and my parents don’t know, I actually turned 14 today. I have had intrusive thoughts since I was 11 or 12, but throughout the 2nd half of 2018, the occasional intrusive thoughts slowly became more common, but didn’t bother me too bad, but I kept obsessing over: what is wrong with me? And “Am I schizophrenic?” I kept thinking I had schizophrenia but I would only occasionally think of it. Eventually in december, I bought me and my dad a pocket knife, basically as a gift for him. Over the next 3 days I kept having harm ocd about my knife but I refused to hide it. Then at school the thoughts went wild and I knew something was wrong. I looked up “scary thoughts” when I got home, and ever since then, the way I used to feel has been gone. I think about ocd everyday now. Idk what to do. My harm ocd has gone away mostly but now I have a lot of thoughts of me hurting myself and “what if I just die”. It scares me. Anyway, anyone have a story similar to this? Thanks.

I was diagnosed with OCD when I was a kid and its has had its ups and downs since then.( Im 18) When I was your age I remeber I had some pretty bad compulsions but now it's gotten better with work♡. I think its important you get a chance to go to theraphy, not just for diagnosis ( I think its pretty clear you do have intrusive thoughts) but to speak up about whats worrying you and find solutions alongside your therapist to fight them. If you can't go, there are plenty of tools online you can check one by one calmly. Just remember the thoughts and you as a person are different things, think of it as an unwanted bug in your head or cold water getting in your mind, whatever works best. Take things slowly, don't try to make sense of everything that happens and remember you are a good person ♡ The sole fact you react contrarily means your true self thinks otherwise from those thoughts.

Totally agree hearing the diagnosis from a doctor and realizing you have a illness and are not in fact “crazy” is very beneficial. From there you can start medication and/or therapy to start working out these problems. There’s nothing to be ashamed of everyone on this app is dealing with the very same problems. Always remember you are not alone and there is help !

I always knew there was something wrong with me but i didn't know what it was. Then on November or December of 2017 i watched this YouTube video from a youtuber who does really good videos of mental illness and she posted this video of how it is to have OCD and she legit did everything i do! She checked if her door was locked a lot, she checked if the stove was off to many times, she had to touch things a lot to make sure it felt right and many more things. So thanks to her i found out i had OCD.

I don’t understand why we weren’t educated more about mental illness in school!! I also had no clue what I was suffering with until 4 years ago and I have been suffering since I was 10 !! It’s sad everyone needs to be more educated about mental health then maybe people wouldn’t feel so scared and alone !

Looking back, Im fairly certain I had ocd tendencies as a kid, but it really truly started this past June. I had an awful intrusive thought the day before my high school graduation that gave me my first panic attack and left me obsessing about it for weeks—I was basically unable to mentally function, but because my anxiety disorders tend to be pretty high functioning, no one could really tell what was going on in my head. Just remembering the amount of fear and isolation I felt is still enough to bring me to tears. That was supposed to be a wonderful exciting time in my life—graduating and starting a new chapter—and OCD took that away from me. I researched my symptoms after a little while, and a page about OCD came up. I knew as soon as I read the info that I had ocd, and felt SO relieved that I wasn’t crazy. It took a while longer, but I eventually got a doctors appt and was diagnosed with OCD, generalized anxiety disorder, and I was recently diagnosed with panic disorder (although my panic attacks are thankfully infrequent). Now I am in counseling and am passionate about destroying mental health stigma, and am slowly improving the way that I cope with mental illness

You go girl !! ?????? we all are stronger then our minds!!

It does sound a bit like my story. Ever since I was a kid I've had symptoms, but when I was about 12 it got really bad. I started getting sexual and violent intrusive thoughts all the time and I would stay up real late at night because I was afraid I wouldn't wake up if I went to sleep. The thoughts got so bad I googled "having thoughts of things you don't wanna do" and that was how I started finding information about ocd. After that I suspected I might have it, but I didn't know what to do about it and when I tried to bring it up with my mom she didn't believe me. Then when I got older I started doing more research and the more stuff I found out, the more it sounded exactly like me, so somewhere later in high school I started realizing I actually do have it. I brought it up with a school therapist in college and that was the first time I really was able to hear from a professional that I have it, but that just barely happened, so I've went a long time without an actual diagnosis. I haven't even had therapy for it yet. I've just been doing as much research as I can and learning ways I can cope with it. When I was your age I didn't get the best responses when I told people I thought I might have ocd, so you'll want to stand your ground with it. And until you get therapy, remember to do your research!