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At what age did you get OCD?


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How old were you when OCD symptoms started to majorly impact your life?

Do you remember what life was like, before OCD?


My OCD started during childhood trauma - I think it was a stress reaction. I was about 12.

The worst OCD symptoms were between age 14 and 25.

 

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My earliest memory, I was about 4 I think, was of me measuring if my jacket's sleeves were the same size. As I child I wouldn't eat anything prepared by anyone other than my mother and didn't like eating in other people's cutlery as I always thought it wasn't clean. After that, it's a bit of a blank and my ocd spiked after my parents divorce. I understood it really impacted my life when, last year, I missed my bus as I couldn't leave the house because of my routines. 

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I always knew there was something there when I checked (and eventually broke) all the doors to see if they were locked. I would keep my phone away from me at night as I thought something bad could happen. This started from when I was as young as I can remember.

When my intrusive harmful thoughts came in around 2016 when I was about 21 that's when it started having a major impact on my life, and I realised it was something a bit more serious than just checking doors. 

A relatively short space of time compared to some who have suffered with it for decades!

Do you guys think you're doing better with access to a forum like this? I feel so much more in control of it now thanks to some supportive people on here.

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25 minutes ago, BM94 said:

Do you guys think you're doing better with access to a forum like this? I feel so much more in control of it now thanks to some supportive people on here.

Completely! In real life, I don't know anyone who suffers from ocd. It's nice to know we're not some freaks, and that there are more people out there who understand what we go through. I think this forum is very beneficial. And we also learn from other people's experiences ?

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47 minutes ago, BM94 said:

I always knew there was something there when I checked (and eventually broke) all the doors to see if they were locked. I would keep my phone away from me at night as I thought something bad could happen.

Same for me!

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Guest dimmerswitch

I probably, in hindsight recognised OCD traits from being around 10 onwards. The breakdown period, I can’t think of another way to put it, but that happened when I was 23. I thought I was mad, a monster for having such thoughts. There was no access to anything like the forum, and it was a very frightening and lonely period. It wasn’t until I was in my mid-thirties that a Nurse said the three letters, OCD. Bizarrely, I thought, I don’t have that, I don’t do this, that or the other (OCD media cliches). I did feel some sort of relief at finally having a name to put to it.
 

I still struggle. Daily. I come on here and offer support where I can...the very reason this forum exists. I’m in my 50s now, so I better get used to it as it’s going nowhere.
 

That is best advice I could offer anyone of us. It’s here, it’s never going, allow it to be here, it’s the way we react which feeds it.

 

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I've had OCD for as long as I can remember, since I was about 4 or 5. It caused me a lot of inner distress but life was generally fine, I did well in school, had friends and nobody was concerned. It wasn't until I was 20 and alone at uni that it really hit me hard and I couldn't cope anymore, that is when I got a diagnosis and started getting help for the first time. I think it all came to a boiling point at that age because I suddenly realised that all these thoughts (which I'd had forever) weren't normal and I thought they were dangerous and I panicked, which made everything worse. 

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Looking back I can see that tendencies were there in childhood, and I certainly had BDD from a fairly young age, but for me OCD properly set in when I was twenty. 

I wish with every part of me I could go back to before that moment?big hugs to you all :hug:

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Guest dimmerswitch
38 minutes ago, afmoon03 said:

Looking back I can see that tendencies were there in childhood, and I certainly had BDD from a fairly young age, but for me OCD properly set in when I was twenty. 

I wish with every part of me I could go back to before that moment?big hugs to you all :hug:

Me too. To live without it, but it’s never going to happen. A great sentiment. ?

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I believe I was 13 when it happened, maybe 12, I'd have to double check, but it was pretty sudden in how rapidly things changed.  I have some memory of what it was like before the OCD.  In retrospect I may have had some slightly OCDish behaviors, but nothing that would have risen to the level of needing therapy or medication til that point.

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