Sharing OCD Diagnosis with colleagues and others

[Triple]

Hi everyone,

 

I've been a member of the OCD zoom groups for a couple of months and have mentioned my struggles with harm/responsibility focused OCD as an educator more recently. I've talked about my experience with A and E, when my OCD was at it most troublesome, and am currently being supported by primary care IAPT service with CBT (which I am currently 11/20 sessions into).

As the new school year starts, my school leaders have approached me with recommendations from occupational health. They raised the idea of sharing some details of my diagnosis with parents to ensure correct information was being shared rather than suspicion for my initially decreased timetable. They also said that sharing with my colleagues may be a positive move as people may find issue with me receiving more time out of class. I'm a little torn about what to do with this as I've always been quite closed about my diagnosis and unsure how to best phrase it to parents/colleagues. My leaders have said they would not share details without my permission, which I'm appreciative of but in a very fragile state. I love my job and don't want to let OCD take away something i've worked my entire life for. 

 

Any ideas about positives/negatives of sharing diagnosis with relevant stakeholders and ways of wording this to internal/external people would be appreciated.

 

Thanks, and look forward to seeing you all again at the next zoom meeting. 

Liam

[DRS1]

On 02/09/2022 at 17:33, Triple said:

Hi everyone,

 

I've been a member of the OCD zoom groups for a couple of months and have mentioned my struggles with harm/responsibility focused OCD as an educator more recently. I've talked about my experience with A and E, when my OCD was at it most troublesome, and am currently being supported by primary care IAPT service with CBT (which I am currently 11/20 sessions into).

As the new school year starts, my school leaders have approached me with recommendations from occupational health. They raised the idea of sharing some details of my diagnosis with parents to ensure correct information was being shared rather than suspicion for my initially decreased timetable. They also said that sharing with my colleagues may be a positive move as people may find issue with me receiving more time out of class. I'm a little torn about what to do with this as I've always been quite closed about my diagnosis and unsure how to best phrase it to parents/colleagues. My leaders have said they would not share details without my permission, which I'm appreciative of but in a very fragile state. I love my job and don't want to let OCD take away something i've worked my entire life for. 

 

Any ideas about positives/negatives of sharing diagnosis with relevant stakeholders and ways of wording this to internal/external people would be appreciated.

 

Thanks, and look forward to seeing you all again at the next zoom meeting. 

Liam

Hi. It's probably a very nerve-wracking opportunity that you have here and I'm glad your workplace have given you that opportunity that will hopefully educate people about the reality of OCD.

 

You don't have to disclose your thought content nor even the main themes that it falls under most commonly. You can just explain generally what obsessions are and what compulsions are, how real it feels etc.

 

What you could then say is that there are many different things that people with OCD experience and then go into it that way. That avoids you personally disclosing your thought content.

[Triple]

Thankyou for the advice