Superblade

my gp told me i will have to stay on a maintenance dose when its time to reduce my meds. i dont know what that means but i am still on the meds anyway. might be worth asking your gp about a maintenance dose ?

I remember a good few years ago when there was a scare about a flesh eating bug in hospitals. My OCD latched onto that and I spent weeks if not months obsessing about it and worrying that I would get it and making sure I didn't get a cut or open wound etc.I'm a bit more OCD aware these days I think everyone without OCD worries to some extent about these things especially with the way the media portray these kind of things but us ocd 'ers will take it to extremes if we let it. Just don't react to the thoughts, let them be there and eventually they will subside. Hope this helps

I saw a feed on Facebook today that casualty this coming Saturday features a patient suffering with ocd. It should be interesting to see how it is portrayed.

In my experience GP,s and therapists alike are a bit of a lottery. I,ve encountered a good few and tbh I would say about only 1 in 4 are any good and understanding. Change GP,s until you find one that listens to you and doesn't,t just dismiss OCD. You have the right to be treated with respect and understanding, don,t settle for anything less.

Hang in there jo, things will start to improve for you. It's horrid when we have a relapse but in my experience going through them only makes us even stronger. Thinking of you mate xx

As FF says ideal opportunity for some exposure, use it to your advantage, I know it's hard but I also know you can do it. Good luck mate

I know it sounds hard and putting it into practice is difficult at first but everyone on here is or has gone through what you are in one way or another, we are all sympathetic to you and want to help you and everyone else who suffers this awful illness

once you accept that this is OCD and the repetitive intrusive thoughts and compulsions to neutralise them are symptoms of our illness then we can begin to fight them and react differently to them. This then breaks the OCD cycle and recovery begins

Definitely OCD at work

OCD is the doubting disease, it makes us not really know if we are coming, going or been. Just to clarify from my perspective as a parent if a stranger came up and picked my son up I would be concerned however if it was someone we knew i.e. a family friend or relative etc then I would feel comfortable with it. If I were you I would stick to that rule and you should be fine, anything else that comes into your head is just OCD at play and you need to realise that and learn how to deal with it. Have you had cbt to teach you how to deal with these intrusive thoughts

I think by your last post you realise that these thoughts you are having are irrational, it's because you have OCD that they keep coming back to haunt you and you are looking for certainty (which is virtually impossible) Everyone has these kind of thoughts from time to time but because they don,t have an OCD mind (like we do) they can just dismiss them and they go away quite quickly but because we have OCD they stick and we try to look for a quick way to neutralise them. Try doing what I said and see what happens, it does get better but don't expect too much too soon. Good luck

I,ve been battling with something similar to this and you have my sympathy BUT OCD will never be contented, you have to work at ignoring the intrusive thoughts. It really is the only way to get out of this vicious cycle you are in. I know it's hard but with hard work and determination it can be done. I began ignoring the thoughts back in November 2011 and now I am about 80 to 90 per cent cured. Don,t try and stop the thoughts just let them be there, I know your anxiety will go up and sometimes you will fail and reassure yourself etc but just keep practicing ignoring the intrusive thoughts and slowly it gets better. The hard truth is that unfortunately there is little certainty in life and that is what keeps OCD alive. If it wasn't this theme your OCD had latched onto it would be something else, believe me I know.

keep at it mate, i know its a long hard road but it does get better

this is ocd and its just got something different to get its teeth into, are you the guy who,s "mate" used to make comments in nightclubs to girls and pretend it was you. If you are its a case of same theme different situation. Try not to resolve each seperate incident because whatever you resolve ocd will just find something new, just realise that these intrusive thoughts and anxiety are a result of ocd, let them be there, do your best not to react to them and try to get on with your life with or without the intrusive thoughts in your head

hi there, i,m sorry to hear things are difficult for you, it sounds to me that you are craving attention and feel lonely and isolated due to your mental illness, i did actually know someone once who made up that she was dying to get attention. She was severely depressed and had no one to confide in. Do you have anyone who you feel you could confide your thoughts and feelings to like you have on here? are you on any medication and have you seen a gp. It sounds to me that you are depressed and that is making everything else so much worse, depression can make people think and feel so much out of character and if you suffer from ocd too being depressed will make the symptoms of that so much harder to deal with. If i were you go to your gp and tell him/her what you have told us on here, if you are already on medication and still feeling like this then perhaps your gp needs to try something different, have you had cbt or any other kind of therapy?