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Hi everyone,

I am new to this forum and looking to speak to people with a formal diagnosis of Pure OCD. I am writing an article for https://theconversation.com/uk/topics/conservation-72

as it is a topic close to my heart. I feel one of the major issues regarding Pure OCD is the lack of professional understanding and difficulties associated with diagnosis. It is also an important subject since for the past 6 months as I have been experiencing obsessional fixations. However, when I be honest with myself I have had obsessional tendencies in the past. There have been issues getting a formal diagnosis. I have been trying to focus my energy on other interests. At the moment I am doing a PhD in Neuroscience and trying to focus these obsessive feelings on something other ruminating for hours about a particular issue. 

Examples of ruminations I have had and latched onto in the past 6 months include: convincing myself I had HIV (2 weeks- month), scared of becoming an abuser (recurrent),  convincing myself I am a covert narcissist (1 month), obsessing over people who lie and tell me ********(everyday, occurs with any interpersonal interaction) and worried my new partner doesn't like me causing me to keep it distant and then break away for no real reason. Basically, these are some examples and I have been to see a medical professional but because I appear normal nothing happens. If you state that you think it is an obsessional disorder then they think your just full of ****. the truth is this happens in our head and so we just learn to try and focus our energy on something else.

I ask people who think they have Pure OCD or have a formal diagnosis to help me get the word out into the media. Writing an article that allows people to understand exactly what it is like on a daily basis. People have no idea what it is like to constantly ruminate about thoughts and question everything you do because you worry. If it wasn't for a friend able to convince me otherwise I would have suffered alot more. 

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Hi,

I am not sure you are going to like my response....  but posted to help you :)

 

3 hours ago, SPLEFFY said:

I am new to this forum and looking to speak to people with a formal diagnosis of Pure OCD.

I am afraid you won't find a single person on this forum... because Pure O is not a medical term, so nobody can be diagnosed with it. 

So whilst I support you efforts to increase and raise awareness of OCD, and I will happily talk to you and help you I would never support efforts to raise awareness of Pure O. In fact I would welcome an article that correctly addresses this subject and points out that Pure O does not exist, mentions there is no such medical term and that OCD-UK discourage the use of the term Pure O.

From an OCD perspective there will always be obsessions and always be compulsions, which is why Pure O is a badly worded and confusing term and why correctly labelling it 'OCD' is a better term that accurately describes what is going on.

Some examples of compulsions that are less obvious, but always exist with this type of OCD include avoidances, checking (sometimes online) and reassurance seeking. 

3 hours ago, SPLEFFY said:

I feel one of the major issues regarding Pure OCD is the lack of professional understanding and difficulties associated with diagnosis

It depends what you mean.  If you mean a failure to diagnose Pure O then no, health professionals are not lacking understanding, those suggesting such are the ones lacking understanding I am afraid.  What I will suggest is that some health professionals don't always recognise all symptoms of OCD, i.e. ones involving harm and sexual fears including some of the examples you mentioned.  So whilst it is right to say they are aspects of OCD, I wouldn't agree they are aspects of 'Pure O'.

I hope this helps (even if not exactly what you wanted to hear). Ashley :)

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I just spent an hour with a guy on the phone. He initially wanted to talk about Pure O. I knew what he meant but when we got to talking we ended up talking about obsessions, compulsions and Cognitive Behavioral Therapy -- the same topics I would talk to someone who had overt compulsions. There is no difference. You can have overt or covert compulsions or a combination of the two but the treatment is exactly the same, no matter which is your mix. I wrote an article about Pure O for my own website and it talks about what a useless term it is and how it just clouds recovery for some people.

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