The purpose of the OCD-UK forums I thought it be useful and helpful for both new and existing members to reiterate the purpose of the OCD-UK Forums.   Across the internet you will find many OCD websites and discussion forums, many of which do a fabulous job. But sometimes, how other websites are run may confuse people about what to expect when using the OCD-UK forums. The primary objective of the OCD-UK forum is to encourage and promote recovery from Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder and promote good therapeutic practices (i.e. highlighting the problem with seeking reassurance for example).  Also with a lot of overseas users on the forum these days who struggle to access therapy in their country, it is perhaps prudent to point out to them and UK based users that the forum should not be used in replacement for a professional diagnosis and treatment by clinically trained health professionals. We are also here to be a place of comfort and support for those struggling and unable to fight OCD at this time. We will offer empathy but also by encouraging those unable to fight to remain focussed on a recovery goal, be that a destination or ongoing journey of constant improvement.  To do that, we will encourage each other to think positively about potential changes that we can make to improve our individual situations, that might be a different approach to how we handle our OCD or simply seeking out more therapeutic treatment, there is so much that we can all do on a daily basis to at least try improving our situation. We will make no apology for making regular posts about the fact that recovery is possible. It’s important that the forum does not become a place where people simply come to seek the answers they want or seek comfort or reassurance constantly day-after-day, because that will not help a user move forward long-term. The forum must always ask questions, sometimes tough questions and talk about ‘what next?’, what can we all do next to help ourselves. Hopefully most days we will get the balance right between empathy and offering comfort against making suggestions designed to help you move forward and challenge your OCD. Of course, the danger is that sometimes you will hear advice that you don’t want to hear, but that doesn’t not mean it shouldn’t have been offered, in fact usually the advice we don’t want to hear is the probably the advice we NEED to be listening to. But we will endeavour to deliver such advice empathically. The forum is not about individual one-one-one advice because nobody here is qualified for that, so we discourage the use of the private messaging facility to request OCD support and offering of help to other forum members.  Over the years we have seen this approach lead to some catastrophic problems for both adviser and recipient, so our advice on this matter is actually based on practical experience (for everybody's welfare).  One of the problems this can create is that a well-meaning user may be trying to help, but ultimately their knowledge of dealing and tackling OCD is fundamentally flawed.  When this happens on the open forum, other users can and do correctly question the flawed advice and between our wonderful userbase we usually get to the right place. But in the private messaging the flawed advice goes unchecked, and could ultimately impact or damage the persons recovery journey, and we are absolutely sure that nobody wants that for anyone.    We have a wonderful group of forum users that are kind, caring and wanting to help. So let’s use the OCD-UK forum for good and help each other start and perhaps in time even complete our recovery journeys.