Andrea

[Ashley]

The OCD-UK forums is more than a website, over the years it became a global community of people helping, supporting and more importantly caring deeply about each other. Therefore I wanted to share some sad news with you about one of our members, I don’t think she will mind me posting this.

Andrea is perhaps one of our furthest overseas members living in Iquique City in Chile (see attached Image which Andrea sent to me a couple of years ago), which some of you will know was devastated by an earthquake midweek. Straight away let me say Andrea and all her family are safe and well, even her dogs survived she tells me, but sadly her house was completely destroyed.

I think the reason I am making this post is so that we can all send any spare love and positive thoughts across the Atlantic to Andrea in Chile. I can’t imagine what life must be like for anyone with such devastation, but dealing with that and having OCD too must be a living nightmare.

I am not sure if there is such a thing as lucky living with an earthquake, but she tells me her street does have water and electricity, but all around don’t, so for those small things I am grateful for Andrea and her family. They are spending their time trying to retrieve belongings that survived the devastation and decide if they rebuild or move.

I just want to copy the last line of her email.

I write to tell you that I'm alive and fine, controlling my OCD the best I can and focussing on the positive things.

I know we all have our difficulties, but my heart is truly saddened that Andrea is going through this, but grateful that she and her family are ok. I am sure all our forum will be sending love to Andrea, I know I am. I am also thinking about what can we do practical wise to help Andrea.

[Purplepiper7]

Wow, I'm sorry to hear this (). I'm at a loss for words, just glad to know that Andrea and her family are safe. xx

[taurean]

Thanks for sharing this Ashley. Thanks to modern technology we are a truly global entity.

It's great to know Andrea and family are safe. As we say in the insurance world, material things can be rebuilt/replaced but lost lives cannot, so their safety is good news.

Roy

[gingerbreadgirl]

what an awful thing to happen but good to hear Andrea and her loved ones are safe. Sending best wishes x

[Guest legend]

Hope things improve quickly for you all andrea

best wishes

legend x

[Guest aleuk]

Oh dear, how horrible! Am so glad you're all safe though and hope things improve soon!

Take care!

[Guest LauraMac]

That's awful, hope things get better soon, pleased to hear you and your family are ok though.

All the best,

Laura xx

[Guest MrsF]

Sorry to hear about this - sending you much love.x

[FoosBoo88]

My thoughts are with Andrea at this difficult time. It must be extremely upsetting to have to start over, and to battle OCD as well, what an incredible woman!!

FoosBoo88 x

[Northern Star]

I'm so sorry to hear this, Andy. Sending love and hugs to you, your family and of course L&C xx

[Guest PaulM]

Hola Andrea,

Best wishes to you and your family and friends. Please let us know how you are getting on.

Paul

[Guest Jamesp]

Best wishes!

[Guest PaulE]

All the best to Andrea and her family..hope they can rebuild there lives soon..i dont know them, but feel for them..

[Andrea]

_{Hello OCD-UK}

_{I'm sorry for replying so late to this lovely post (I read it just yesterday: It has not been easy to have access to a computer these days).}

_{Thank you to Ashley and all the people for your kind words and warm messages (I'm speechless! from the bottom of my heart thanks to all of you)}

_{Even though It has been really tough living this situation, I'm fine and extremely grateful for many reasons, and one of them is having OCD-UK in my life.}

_{LOL! (I'm smiling right now) because I don't know what to write exactly due to Ashley has made an accurate description of my current situation.}

_{I think that I can say that these days, the city is living a process of "healing" (for example. the damaged areas of the city are been checked by a engineers and builders, children are returning to school in some areas). In my case, I'm thankful of having my family (the reconstruction of my house will probably take a year and half aprox).}

_{These days, I've been thinking a lot about OCD, and all I got till now is that OCD tends to be more tough during a stress situation, but a stress situation is also an opportunity to fight harder against OCD. I don't know why OCD is always inventing scary sitations or pointing out negative things around, but if stress trigger my OCD is my resppnsibility to reduce the stress of my life.}

_{My heart now is also with the people of the center of Chile (Valparaiso city) due to a huge fire that ocurred there recently. People there is fighting to control the situation and the entire country is sending them help.}

_{I will finish saying that even when a tough situation happens, you can always find positive things in that situation too.}

_{THANK YOU OCD-UK team and THANK YOU ASHLEY for all that you do for us (OCD sufferers).}

_{Big e-hugs from the distance,}

_{Andy from Chile: fighting against OCD with all my heart!!}

[Ashley]

Hi Andrea,

Lovely to hear from you, and I am sure I speak for everyone when I say we are sending you our thoughts and hopes that you find some peace and comfort very soon.

Ashley x

[Guest Tricia]

Thinking of you, Andrea. xx

[efes]

Thinking of you, Andrea. xx

+1

[Andrea]

:original: Thank you very much to everyone for your nice words :original:

Currently, I'm participating on the reconstruction process of my home. It's really stressful, however I think the key is being proactive, positive and patient no matter what the problem is. Now I am really happy because I can use my PC again (I couldn't use it for the last 2 weeks due to a conection problem).

I hope everyone have a great day with a controlled OCD (Let's ignore that little voice called OCD!)

Big hugs from the distance,

Andrea

[Ashley]

Glad things are moving forward for you Andrea. How is your OCD through all this, are you coping?

Ashley.

[gingerbreadgirl]

it's really inspirational to see how positive you're being, Andrea Glad things are progressing for you x

[Andrea]

Glad things are moving forward for you Andrea. How is your OCD through all this, are you coping?

Ashley.

Well, my OCD is still "shaken" because we are still having aftershocks (small earthquakes) every day (which is completely normal after a huge earthquake, but it is also stressful) To be honest, I'm so tired of small earthquakes that I would love to go to the centre of the planet Earth and make a formal protest just in the middle of the tectonic plates that are causing the earthquakes here (Of course, it would be a pacific protest) ... Just a silly joke .

My perspective to face all this situation is this one: it's impossible not to have those moments where you feel tired or stressful due to all the things you have to do to face the side effects after an big earthquakes (It is a hard work) but at the same time there are tons of positive things around.

I am handling my OCD with tooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooons of willpower and a lot of humor (bad and good days). I use humor to break the cycle of mental torture that OCD is so used to create (or it was so used to create). Humor is a powerful tool :original: to break negative or scary thoughts.

And I use toooooooooons of willpower to decide not to listen to the OCD thoughts, specially during a stressful moment (and it is so hard work! but I really want to be free , I know that I have to face the scary thoughts) I'm working hard to face them and using a lot of humor to make it easier.

A big hug from the distance