When We Feel Damaged....

[taurean]

It's very easy for OCD sufferers to have that feeling. 

Often we know deep down that our thoughts and fears make us different, and we can feel marginalised, overpowered, restricted and unhappy. 

People often reach us here saying they've exhausted other avenues, don't know where to turn, need others who understand how they think and feel.

And here we do. We don't give up on people. We know how difficult it is to try and stand up to our thoughts, feelings, compulsive urges. 

It's so easy to stay stuck, to not believe we are really dealing with a mental illness called OCD. To not understand that it is behind the obsessive way we think feel and react. 

And that we need feel no responsibility for that, it's attributable to the OCD. 

It can take a long time before a sufferer commits to the right path - and it can be very frustrating for helpers who know exactly what they need to be doing. 

But, as my therapist said to me, recovery takes whatever time it takes for any particular individual. 

Best practice? One to one, or at least group, clinical psychology providing cognitive behavioural therapy with a specialist in treating OCD. 

That will be of finite duration due to availability or cost - and the sufferer needs to adopt what they are told and do the ongoing work themselves. 

But always we will be here. Patient, informed, suggestive, empathic - thanks to the supply of these forums free to air by the wonderful charity OCD-UK and the volunteers, members and fund-raisers who make the charity happen - the charity of which I am so proud to be a member and supporter. 

Do take on board what can be learned here. And do check out the charity's own website, where there is a wealth of help and guidance, plus a store selling books clothing and other items which both help sufferers and their families, and also contribute to the charity's funding. 

 

[greentop]

Thanks @taurean. I often think of people like you and many others on the board as volunteers. And the most selfless kind who don’t shout about what they do from the rooftops 

[taurean]

32 minutes ago, greentop said:

Thanks @taurean. I often think of people like you and many others on the board as volunteers. And the most selfless kind who don’t shout about what they do from the rooftops 

That's how I see it now.

People ask me if I want to do some voluntary work in my retirement, and I say effectively I think I am already 

The beauty of helping on the forum is that I can do it wherever I am, wherever it suits, and whenever I like. 

And I am sitting down. I did think of doing a turn in one of the local charity shops, but don't think my arthritic knees would cope with all the standing up. 

When I came here I had been seeking an answer to resolve a particular feature of my OCD that had eluded the specialist OCD clinical psychologists with whom I had had CBT therapy. 

Eventually thanks to help from the charity, its members and another therapist, we found the answer. 

So I am myself very much a beneficiary of help from OCD-UK