discussion!: who here is a believer that ocd can be “cured(no symptoms/minimal).” who is a believer that we will have to put up w this for the long run. i’ve read so many mixed stories and i’m real curious what people think/ what their goal is for recovery. let’s spread some hope if we can in the comments. i’m feeling like i only have a few more turns left on this road to recovery, but i am not sure exactly what that means even tho i’m going thru it. i know i will always have the thoughts as they can’t be “removed”from my mind. but it’s almost as if they are turning into memories i can recall when i remember associations w them. ok that’s all but a discussion on this would b cool :^]

I personally believe it’s able to be suppressed to a negligible level. To assume it can be completely eradicated from the body via behavioral treatment alone seems a bit far fetched. There are physiological aspects to OCD. For instance, the immune system contributes to OCD. Don’t believe me? Look up PANDAS and Immune-mediated OCD. I don’t claim to be a psychological professional by any means. Just someone who has ran the totem pole with OCD for years.

Interesting! I don't believe I am cured by any means. I feel like OCD is a cycle itself besides the obsessions-compulsions-relief cycle. I had just over a year of suffering so bad that I was ill and shaky all the time. Then I discovered OCD was the cause and am doing my best to keep on top of all the ways to beat it. It wasn't as bad as the whole year, but was still as frequent, then I had two whole months of no thoughts, just occasional weekly anxiety of 'somethings not right. Then I had an argument a couple days ago and then suddenly the thoughts and anxiety were back, just as strong at first until I remembered my steps to cope with it. I'm still in that episode (hopefully coming out of it now). This experience has made me believe that we can reduce it to almost non-existent but there will always be a trigger that causes it to flare up once in a while. The hard part of that is it can feel so disappointing/frustrating and more doubtful when it flares up after a really long time of being ok. Life is unpredictable and full of twists and turns and uncertainty that we don't see new triggers coming so we will need to do ERP for those new triggers. But on the whole it can become more manageable where we can even get breaks from it. Chrissie Hodges on YouTube touches on this and she's been suffering for years (around 28 years I think 🤔) and she said she has a normal life and it comes back sometimes.

If you have a mindset that you will be cured, you will be setting yourself up for a nasty relapse. It is a disorder that needs to be managed, and of course sometimes will be better than others.