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OCD Awareness And How It Can Help People, Including Ourselves!


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I am very proud of what I have achieved on awareness.

Last year you may remember I was able to both advertise the work of the firm's disability and diversity group - of which I was a member - and OCD awareness - through the medium of the firm's intranet and discussion forums, the latter which reached out worldwide through our international offices.

In addition to that, I meet a lot of people in my life - I am a very open, people oriented person - and given an opportunity I will tell people about OCD - and often they respond by telling me about concerns they have - which often fall into the category of worry, some other kind of anxiety disorder, and OCD - and they are delighted if I am able to steer them in an appropriate direction.

This approach is very successful because it helps them very specifically, it raises awareness of mental health issues anyway including OCD, and it helps me because I always feel good when I am able to help someone in this way.

Often someone is stuck on something relatively easy to fix, which doesn't need a therapist - a classic example was a young lady who was struggling with making decisions - I learned how to do that successfully long ago from the brilliant book I often quote - "How to Stop Worrying And Start Living" by Dale Carnegie, and when I explained that method - which is brilliant - to this young lady, it was like an enormous shadow lifted from her - the relief was enormous, and obvious to see.

Recently, when I was talking to a long-term friend, she asked me how I was getting on with planning my retirement, and I said that at the moment I was spending a lot of time looking to help others through these forums, whilst I was getting used to the idea of needing to plan my week, and adjusting to more time at home and being able to assist my wife and spend more quality time with her.So in this way OCD-UK is very much helping me too during the change in routines retirement causes, since these sort of changes have led to OCD relapses for me in the past.

I intend to cut down this activity as i get used to finding new routines, but lor the moment it is helpful during transition.

She then surprised me by saying that she herself has suffered with a mild form of OCD for years, and now sees OCD traits in her daughter, and she would like to to use self-help to tackle her OCD head-on, but thinks her daughter would benefit from therapy and did I know how she could find a therapist skilled in OCD?.

Well, obviously I was able to help and am doing so by steering them to OCD-UK and its shop and find a therapist guidance.

So yes I raise OCD awareness in this very inter-personal way, but it also brings the opportunity along with it to help people with other mental health issues too - so I call it "collateral assistance" as opposed to collateral damage!!!!!

Best wishes

Roy

Edited by taurean
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Guest jayjay89

I totally agree Roy - and that's why whenever I am asked if a medical student can sit in on an appointment I always say yes - even if I know it's goin to make it more uncomfortable for me - because as drs especially it's so important that they understand the many forms of ocd and how 'crazy' they can sound.

I had an appointment today with a dr and a medical student - they asked me about my intrusive thoughts and usually I prefer not to discuss them, but felt it was worthwhile going into details so the student will be more understanding of ocd in the future

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I make no bones about having OCD, why should I? In fact I was thinking last night we need to find something like the no make-up selfies and ice bucket challenge to raise money/awareness of OCD/mental health. I was also thinking of some t-shirts or something that say "You wouldn't laugh at cancer, so why laugh at mental health?" or "1 in 50 have OCD, do you?". In fact my banner picture on Facebook says "Yes, I have OCD. No, it isn't just about being a tidy freak" It gets very mixed attitudes I realise, and in no way is mental health more important than cancer, but I think mental health really gets brushed under the carpet. We're too keen to look at our bodies, not our minds.

FoosBoo88 x

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I agree that we need something to bring more awareness to OCD, like a challenge or shirts or something witty but solemn to our struggles. It's funny people out here in California are doing the "ice bucket" challenge when we are in a DROUGHT. Yes, we have water restrictions and our agricultural departments and areas are struggling immensely but that doesn't stop people from dumping cold water on themselves. I hate to be a negative Nancy but I just wanfed to say that haha.

But anyway I agree, OCD awareness is crucial especially since it is so misrepresented in society with "funny" gag gifts and it's even used so casually in conversation. I was listening on the radio to a singer being interviewed and about how devout he was to learning music and whatnot and he just threw out there so casually, " Yeah, you really have to be OCD to learn something so intensely."

I'm thinking my first tattoo will be dedicated to my battle (and conquering) of OCD. I'm going to pick a quote that represents my OCD and I'm planning on having it somewhere noticeable like the side of my fingers or wrist. If people ask me what it means I won't be ashamed to tell them of OCD and my own personal struggles.

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Nice idea if you are sure about the tattoo Nicolette.

Not something I personally would fancy doing though as I've never felt I would want to permanently mark my body.

Roy

Edited by taurean
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