Just a PSA for those suffering: Others' opinions of your situation often become a spotlight in your quest of healing from a subtype. Searching for reassurance usually means finding "answers" from others - none of which know you or your disorder personally. With OCD, reading and checking subreddits, quora, Yahoo answers, and chatrooms can become a very unhealthy way to manage your symptoms. It could either go positively and you alleviate the symptoms for a short amount of time, or you find something very damaging to you and makes you doubt your experience even more. Your brain will not let those negative emotions and feedback go. It will use it as proof, or worse yet, you will begin to feel as though you "believe" or "feel" like the people who are sharing their opinions. Please remember that a lot of the world likes to describe their experiences in black or white terms. Reality is much more grey. I've seen too many of us suffer from this particular chain reaction, and so I want you to be reminded that you have a beautiful life to live. Don't let others dictate that for you, regardless of if it is good feedback (reassurance) or negative feedback (compulsivity).

Of course!

Thanks, Heleni :)

A therapist in real life also said something kind of similar to me. Never told me that my thoughts were intrusive thoughts. Some people shouldn’t have licenses

@Ope Yes that is literally what she told me too !

@Ope Same

It is sadly common for therapists to not have conventional training in OCD treatment. I know for a fact that even within my peers (who are grad psych majors), most of them are completely unaware of how OCD manifests. The majority of therapists are trained to help with general anxiety, depression, image issues, family/relationship counseling, or minority counseling (LGBTQ, minority races, etc.) To find someone truly immersed in OCD is a very rare type of therapy. It involves so much understanding and wisdom. I'd say majority of therapists who center around OCD either have the disorder themselves (like me), or have friends or family who suffer from it. I hope one day we could change this mentality and make treatment much more effective for sufferers. Just give it more time and we shall see more improvements :) Not to get depressing, but 50 years ago, all of us would have been considered "mentally unstable" and committed. Luckily today, there has been a ton of progress. But we still have much more to do!!! Thank you all for staying strong and keep fighting the good fight!

@NOCD Advocate - Kylee C. Hmm that’s so sad to be a therapist I feel like you should have a basic knowledge of all mental illnesses at least to recognize them! This is why I know so many people that attempted suicide when treatment wasn’t working because they were completely misdiagnosed! I hope it doesn’t take another 50 years to make good improvements

@Justmesadly A positive aspect of all of this is that the internet has made it simpler to communicate information. As such, we have awesome apps such as NOCD which help us form support groups (which is something extremely new! Before I was diagnosed, all I had were awful subreddits with unverified information). It may be a lofty plan, but the entire reason I'm studying our disorder and obtaining my doctorate is because I hope to truly change something in the future. We've all spent way too much time feeling misguided and misunderstood. The good news is that I think even within the next 10 years, we will have better practices for OCD, and companies like NOCD are proving to be successful. So, again, although we have tons of progress to make, we are making it quicker and easier for us to get treatment. :) Hope this gives you a little more peace!

@NOCD Advocate - Kylee C. Well more power to you! You’re awesome!