Hi everyone. Has OCD impacted your abilities in work and/or school?? Things at work have pretty much gone up in flames for me at the beginning of last year and I haven’t worked since then and I am doing well in college but I need a job and I don’t know if I’m ready to work or if i can cope etc. could anyone share how their ocd impacts work or school? Makes me feel so alone

Yeah man I have hocd and it's a really pain to work. What I do is I accept the fact that I have no choice but to work. Set up financial goals or other goals. And try to socialize at work takes your mind off things. Now the way it impacts me is sometimes I'll talk to myself at times cause OCD is so loud and I'll argue with it and fortunately no one has heard me yet. But when I get bad anxiety I'll slow myself down and tell myself it's OCD. And work through it.

I spend 15-20 minutes in the bathroom at work every time I go in there because of my COCD. I am terrified of being written up. I've washed my hands ten or fifteen times in a row at the break room sink and my coworkers have seen, which increases my anxiety. I go back and forth between an aisle and our demo sink (I work at a Trader Joe's) to wash my hands during the day (or sanitize my box cutter, hair etc) and people have definitely seen. You are not alone at all. It follows me everywhere. I'm sorry for what you're going through.

also i don’t tell anyone about my OCD but i’d suggest to tell your employer. I ended up telling mine because i was almost fired for never taking out the bathroom trash, but i ended up telling her the truth about why i seriously couldn’t do it and she was understanding! every boss may not be like that but i would be upfront bc it’s helped me a lot (:

I can't write as free as I used to before hocd but I still have hope.

i didn’t think i’d be able to work since i had to quit my job at a restaurant since my COCD was too bad and having to deal with lots of unclean things i couldn’t take it.. but now i work at a smaller shop and my stress level has gone wayyy down since i feel more comfortable and there’s not as many people there, so therefore i feel less contaminated. depending on what you struggle with id honest suggest a more lowkey less stress job if you’re able bc it’s helped me a lot and although i still have to deal with unclean things, there’s much less of it and i’m able to slowly handle it and get better!