Would earlier OCD knowledge have helped you?

[Ashley]

Following on from the thread asking about if you recall OCD symptoms when you were a child, I wonder if you would indulge me once more and allow me to ask a further question.

For those who answered YES to the other thread question do you think it would have helped you had you been told what OCD was and what the symptoms are when you were a child, maybe in school? Would you have been likely to have gone for treatment at an earlier age, thus making adult life a lot easier, even if not OCD free, a lot easier?

It is a difficult question to answer, because at that young age would we be smart enough to know something was wrong?

Thank you.

[Atlantis]

I certainly think it would have helped as mine kicked off at the age of 5. I don't think I would've understood what I was being told, but if my mum and dad would've told me not to wash my hands so much then maybe my contamination OCD would've subsided slightly, But my mum was super hygenic, she had elements of it (OCD) herself so maybe it rubbed off.

Certainly my teens were ruined by the HIV/AIDS phobia, but I didn't know it was OCD then, if I had the information that it was an anxiety disorder then I know for a fact that I would've jibbed it off with that evidence in front of me.

I only found out in the last 5 years that I had OCD, after I was diagnosed - but with my latest fears, I find that knowing it is OCD and nothing else does help a bit. ut I think 25 years untreated has entrenched the devil in my mind and I am currently mobilizing my own war machine for a counterstrike because I am fed up of living in fear and self disgust.

When I was a kid, I knew something was up as I used to say to my mum "I've got a feeling" and then confess to a bad thought or something I hadn't done. In fact I'm getting a bit angry and very tearful as I write this and remember the **** I have had to put up with through out my 30 years. Anyway, I digress, I used to think that all the kids must "think like me" as I didn't see any physical anomoly and my folks hadn't said anything.

[Guest hayley73]

YES!!!!!!!!!! I think if I had knowledge of such a condition as OCD it would have prevented me going through a lot of awful experiences. When diagnosed with OCD it was such a relief. Finally this torment had a name - I wasn't losing my mind. :laugh:

[Bobby Chariot]

i replied yes :blushing:

mind you there's earlier and then there's earlier - i wasn't diagnosed til i was 36 :lol:

[Guest Kitty]

A 'yes' for me too.

I wouldn't have lost my teens and twenties to it, and wouldn't have been made to feel like a freak by my peers and my parents - (well, a lot less of a freak anyway).

I wouldn't be in the mess I'm in now - maybe I'dve broken free before now.

But - if it hadn't been for this board, I wouldn't have met my boyf - so every cloud does have a silver lining .

Guess it's all conjecture though. None of us can really say for certain, can we?

[Rheon]

Hi, Ashley! :original:

Yes! Yes! And thrice yes!!! I would absolutely have liked some help when I was at school!

I remember being terrified of a certain teacher at school (a good teacher, mind, but far too heavy-handed for my liking!) This teacher would threaten us with detention after school (which would have been a major inconvenience for my parents and I), if we didn't hand-in our homework books on time, so that kicked-off what I now realise was checking OCD. (I used to spend 20 minutes opening, checking and closing my bag repeattedly before going to bed.) And I was a meek, well-behaved kid anyway. I was about 11 or 12.

I went to my GP when I was a teenager, and told him I was, in the old-fashioned parlance of the 80s, "suffering with my nerves", but he didn't do anything about it.

I first realised that my problem was called OCD when I saw a TV programme about it in the early to mid nineties.

So the answer's YES! In fact, I would have been glad of this message board and my self-help books ten years ago (I'm 35 now.) It would have saved me a lot of pain.

And by the way, thank you so much for running this place for us! :original:

Cheers,

"newman"

Edited May 15, 2006 by newman

[Guest Lizbeth]

I am unsure of how to answer this question. I do wish something had been done about the situation my sisters and I were in as children....however, I don't really know if tackling my emerging OCD would have been enough....it was a response to things that were happening to me and while these things still persisted I don't see how help with my OCD would have helped me.

[Guest Dimphy]

Not sure either...

I might have been able to get somewhere in college, knowing I had this condition that caused a major setback in finishing my projects on time.

I might have learned to push OCD in the background more had I received treatment.

But I did receive treatment from 21 onwards and my life has only deteriorated since then. So I really don't know if it would have made a difference?

[Rachie]

Are you looking to get information to younger children, Ashley? Or just curious? I really wish I'd had knowledge of it. I had OCD things when I was 4 or 5 but it didn't kick in properly until I was 13 an I didn't know what it was for ages.

[Caramoole]

I haven't answered the poll as my OCD didn't start in childhood.

However, I'm certain it wouldn't have run the course it did (or to the same extent) had I been in possession of good information. I would also say the same about anxiety in general

Caramoole

[Guest FobicFairy]

Yes I think it would have made a difference. But only if as well as me knowing my parents knew and had access to CBT for me early on.

Also, I had problems in one of my jobs, I now realise that it was OCD that was the problem. I was slower, but more methodical and made fewer mistakes, I also did extra things and the other girls didnt like it and said I made them look bad. It caused a lot of problems and I got a warning. Although the sales person I worked for and the Sales Manager thought I was the beez neez. It was only the girls in the office who had been there a gazzillion years who were bitchy about me and grassing me up for things all the time. Like if I sold things on the phone to an existing customer when I could have been doing filing! They were mean to anyone who had a degree or better qualifications than them, and bullied people out, many people left with depression (5 that I knew of). The people that remained were the same group that were all promoted off the shop floor, I think they felt threatened because of their lack of education. They did the job to the letter, 9 to 5, then left, they wanted no extra work, nothing to work towards, no promotion, unlike me. (and the others who got badly treated). I did manage to get my manager moved sideways into a job where she wouldnt be in charge of people, but the new manager just took on all the **** from the shop floor girls and it carried on. In the end I left, but was bullied out really. I used to sit in the nurses office and ball my eyes out, she could see exactly what was going on and tried to help me find something else. If I had known I had OCD I would have stuck it out and let them warn me again and maybe sack me, then taken them to a tribunal for bullying. I accept that I was slower, but when we did invoices I always got less back than them, they had to redo theirs because of the mistakes, so its swings and roundabouts. The main thing was that I wanted to do well and everything I did I gave 110%. It doesnt go down well.

Funny thing is, the next job I did was for this large forward thinking company, I used to get special treats all the time for my work for 'outstanding contribution', mainly Marks and Spencer vouchers. Funny how at one place I was considered to be in the wrong all the time, then only a few months later I am the best thing since sliced bread. I stayed with the new employer for just over 2 years, getting promoted very quickly. I got OCD really bad whilst working there, they were great, tried to get me back in work, but I was too bad to work again. My boss said I was one of the best people in his dept. and when I was ready to go back to ring him and he would find me something. I was off sick for nearly an entire year before they talked about me leaving, and I got cards and flowers, they even came to see me at home. I am still in touch with 3 of the girls from the office and see them on a regular basis. One is my best mate and has supported me through the early stages of my OCD until now. She often reminds me how far I have come and how much I have changed.

Ive moved on from the bad place I worked, you have to, or you would go mad thinking about it, but this question of knowing about OCD would have made things very different I think. Only in that they would have picked on me more and I could have sued their narrow minded bullying asses :a1_cheesygrin:

Sorry its a long post, just wanted to get it off my chest.

FF

[Ashley]

I haven't answered the poll as my OCD didn't start in childhood.

Are you sure you can remember that far back

:lol:

[Guest FobicFairy]

Awwr thanks shar.

:blushing: :a1_cheesygrin:

[Guest AED12345]

I think it would be useful for information to be more widely available to young people in a suitable format, through things like school nurse, college advice centre, connexions, counselling places, youth centres, health centres...this sort of thing.

I my case my symptoms became apparent shortly after I left school @ 16 but I wasn't aware of OCD for some time after that, and not fully aware until years later, by which time my quality of life had declined considerably...and my partner and I had had some time of doing the "wrong" things and unwittingly making it worse.

So in answer to your question, yes! (Having worked in a school and having school-age children, I get the impression that schools & other young people's services are becoming much more aware of things like self-harm, depression, eating disorders, ADHD, Asperger syndrome, but not so much OCD yet).

[Guest honey]

A massive yes - it would have changed my life I think to know that I was not horrible and that I had a recognised condition. Also if only my parents could have acknowledged it - my whole life might have been different.

The only thought I have had though is that if I had been diagnosed when I was 14 or 15 - or even younger - the treatments on offer probably wouldn't have helped much. I just think it's better to know, though, than to blunder on with no idea why you feel so dreadful.

honey

[Guest SallyB]

Yes - it would really have helped me. I was in my mid-20s before I came across the term OCD - the first book I read made me cry because it was like reading about myself - but before that I hadn't realised that anyone else felt/did similar things to me. However, being aware of it didn't really help me manage it - it is only since I found this website and got help from a friend who is an NLP practitioner that I have really managed to come to grips with it.

Sally

[Biccy]

i answered not sure in the first one as i am still working things out but i can say if i had foun out sooner i had ocd maybe the last several years would have been alot different

[Guest LMC]

I put no - unlikely to have helped...purely because I have ocd knowledge now and although it helps to know that your not alone, it hasnt stopped any of my "symptoms"...

because I was so young when I started getting symptoms I didnt know any different, I had seen my dad go around checking and re-checking plugs so when I got the urge I thought it was normal.

I only found out my "routines" had a name a few yrs ago and im still too scared to admit to friends and family...maybe if family was more open to accept mental illnesses I could have admitted it and gotten help yrs ago, but its all "what if's"...

Lou

[Caramoole]

Are you sure you can remember that far back

Cheeky young beggar :fish:

Of course I remember, I have it chiselled on a slate somewhere !!

Caramoole

[ACE]

It could've helped me I had the symptoms as in touching things,writing all over my school books with any word i virtually had to for some reason to counting things.I've lost most of my life to it and it's caused me to lose alot of stress,money,heartache etc.It still dominates my life so much everyday and it dreads me that I have to keep living like this.

[Guest REBECCA]

My OCD started at about age eight (maybe earlier) and I knew straight away that my OCD rituals/thoughts were not 'normal' and were 'my way of coping' with my family situation. I went to great lengths to hide them. Even despite this, I felt ashamed of it and unable to talk to anyone about it. I knew that my family noticed some of my behaviour but never said anything to me (which I have subsequently felt rather upset about).

I knew when I was about fourteen that what I had was OCD, but still felt unable to talk to my family or anyone else about it, and believed I could try to stop it myself. I couldn't. By the time I was eighteen and came to live in London I was longing to finally see a doctor and address the issue. As soon as I moved to London, registered with a GP and had the obligatory 'health check' with the doctor I told him everything I had experienced in the last ten years and luckily, Thank God, he was understanding and referred me quickly ~ (I know how lucky I was with this, having read the terrible experiences many people have had with unhelpful doctors, etc.) Having said that, treatment can be a long and arduous process, and ten years on from that I am still struggling to a certain extent, but am still fighting that OCD will not be in my life over the next ten years.

The thought that it could have been possible for my family/dcotor/school/a charity to intervene and help when I was a child and stop years of unecessary suffering (feeling unhappy and alone with OCD) is something that saddens me for myself (although I am working hard to be happy and OCD~free now).

It also makes me feel inspired and determined for this not to happen to other children and young people. I would like to contribute and help in any way I can with a support network or specific project to reach out to children/young people to inform them and acknowledge/address their OCD suffering as early as possible.

Rebecca*X

[Guest flap]

Yes certainly.

Throughout my early childhood and especially through my teens I felt like I was strange and a freak.

It would have also help in the fact that I could have took a stand against ocd much much sooner in life before the rituals and the habit of compulsions got part of daily life.

Flap

[Bobby Chariot]

hindsight is a wonderful thing - i've been thinking a bit more, and maybe things would have turned out differently if i had known earlier..yet at the same time, what has happened can't be undone - it's up to me to make the most of what i am and what i have..

my life, pre-diagnosis, consisted of about 30 years that i can remember of constant fear and self disgust

i've been bullied and abused countless times, often because i felt that was all i deserved.

i didn't have a relationship till i was 22 - about a year later i became single again for about 7 years as i felt my physical touch/presence contaminated others, that i would harm people if i let them get close (and a few million other fears ).

i then spent about five years with someone who i wasn't attracted to, and who abused and belittled me constantly - again because i felt that was probably more than i deserved - finding out i had OCD was a relief (even if it did take me a year or two to *mostly* believe the diagnosis :lol: )

trying to undo so many years of self-hatred isn't easy...

but at the same time, i am who i am, my experiences have made me, and though my life is far from perfect, i have many things to be thankful for :original:

i wouldn't wish OCD on anyone, yet in some ways, i feel as if it has made me a better person...

David

[Guest Muse_Man]

Hi,

As a child I would say no, though in my teens when the OCD was severe it would of helped me when it was most noticeable and open. Up to the age of 12 the relationship with my parents, who seperated when I was 5, had a major influence on my upbringing, alongside unescapable events and happenings triggering off the OCD.

I agree strongly agree with Dave, whats happened cant be changed. I feel I have some wedge in the OCD with the knowledge. At first it was frustrating finding out the OCD is treatable, 'all those years', though I have come to accept those are experiences I cant change part of my life. The OCD is still there, the rituals, though its more comforting to know a lot of people experience compulisve behaviour and some the thoughts are 'normal' but not on the same scale, it is treatable and I can be less secretive about it.

Stuart

[Guest brennie]

Following on from the thread asking about if you recall OCD symptoms when you were a child, I wonder if you would indulge me once more and allow me to ask a further question.

For those who answered YES to the other thread question do you think it would have helped you had you been told what OCD was and what the symptoms are when you were a child, maybe in school? Would you have been likely to have gone for treatment at an earlier age, thus making adult life a lot easier, even if not OCD free, a lot easier?

It is a difficult question to answer, because at that young age would we be smart enough to know something was wrong?

Thank you.