OCD channel 4 NOW!!!!!!

[CuriousMama]

I know a few of you suffer so may be worth a watch? I love Jon too

Do you mind me asking what meds you're on? I've tried citalopram but it didn't help that much.

I am on sertraline. Just 50mg as a starting dose though have been told it will have to go up and I can see this tbh, the imagery is gone but I have to work hard with the rest of it. I have been having CBT for about four months - privately at first but then the NHS appointment came through and it has been much better. Also had four mindfulness sessions and NHS CBT person has also recommended mindfulness exercises. I am on sertraline as it's the one I can take while breastfeeding.

That's good thunks.

i woudl have thought you could be born with ocd, woud have thought certain things can be genetic, her father had it, her son had it, and she had it.

poor woman sitting on the balcony though, she needs help.

I have a new(ish) OCD diagnosis and it really is so hard to manage sometimes. I am very compulsive and will go to quite extraordinary lengths to make things right. Unfortunately my OCD traits are strongest in thinking about and planning self harm and I spend much of my time thinking about it or doing it or stressing about not doing it. I have to eat my food in a certain order, I have to wash in a certain order, my bedtime routine is so hard because if it goes wrong I have to start it over again and sometimes I have to do it 4 or 5 times. I am struggling at the moment to use an appropriate dressing for my self harm because it goes yellow on your skin and even though it is anti-bacterial the yellow-ness makes it dirty and I hate being dirty. I can't touch sand or mud or sticky or gooey things because they are dirty. I wonder a lot when things stopped being a routine and became an essential.

Writing this out is depressing.

It was so sad watching this though :( It is utterly crippling.

Poor woman and her partner.. All those lists. She def needs help. I wonder if she'll get any on the back of the programme?

that is unimaginable fluffy

You poor thing Fluffy what sort of help are you getting?

Makes my OCD seem very trivial.

Oh it is not so bad! I function ok, just live my life very carefully. Like I have to eat the thing I like the least first and so on until the favourite last and I am just used to doing a quick scan of the plate first.

I just got used to avoiding dirty things (I am not obsessive about cleaning thank God). It is only when I think about it that I realise things have got hard for me, like I think I could sit on grass a few years ago but now probably not or I don't remember when wearing suncream (gooey = dirty) became so difficult.

I have other mental health issues as well so I am having treatment for them as well (personality disorder is the root of the self harm and then the OCD bit comes in with the obsessive/compulsive nature of my self harm). I have lots of support from my team.

Sorry I have made this about me. I am not affected in the same way as those poor people at all.

Fluffy you sound very strong and positive. Your Thank God about the cleaning comment made me , I hope your new-ish diagnosis means you are getting good treatment and support.

Thanks for sharing your story fluffy and no you didn't make this about just you. This thread is about OCD and MH issues. We're all here for each other You do sound positive and it sounds like you want to help yourself with the support of your team?

Just watched this on demand. From the ads I thought it was going to be one of those awful 'a light look at the world of OCD' but I thought it was actually quite good. I don't suffer OCD but I do have a few other MH issues including an ED. I found it interesting that some of the thought processes are similar and although I am nowhere near having any O or C issues I could totally relate to the intrusive, irrational thoughts, I just happen to have these about foods rather than actions I guess.

This show completly frazzled my life. I thought I was doing ok, keeping things to a minimum, most of my usual things not really being an issue until I saw this show and the woman with the lists and the cleaning. For the past few months I have been getting more and more frazzled trying to work out I dunno, a cleaning rota, a life rota, how to fit things into my day, etc etc writing out list upon list, never being happy with them, having a minor breakdown at my partner, getting him to help me write the rota thing and tell me what to do. You get the gist. I thought I was being rational, trying to be organized and just being bad at it. Now after seeing the woman on the show I realise actually I'm in a mess. It's really upset me and that's what led me to this part of the site.
I apologise for changing the tone of this thread and believe me I do not expect anyone to jump and try help me with this but everyone else is fed up of my woffling lately and I just wanted to get it out of me how much this realisation that I'm not as rational right now as I thought I was, has upset me.
OCD: 1 Pocketsocks: 0

sparklekitty I was pleasantly surprised at the show too.

Pocketsocks so what's your plan now you know it's not usual behaviour? Will you try to get any help from your GP? You must be exhausted? Realisation can be a terrible thing to begin with but hopefully will lead to you getting help or managing your behaviours? And please don't apologise this thread was started to talk about MH issues and the programme all are welcome

I'm not altogether sure yet to be honest. I've done the GP/ CBT route to death and it's never really helped me, although a self help book on the principles of CBT helped me to handle things way back when, maybe another read to re ground myself will be in order.
I've always been the listy type anyway (she says hopefully) so I hope I can just cut down like quitting smoking or something until I'm more comfortable with my frquencies. For me recovery has always been about bending the disorders rules until I function if that makes any sense. It's just disheartened me because its a very long process and I thought I was doing so well, but now I'm nearly over the heartache of realising I can get on to the next stage.
And yes I am exhausted, pysically and emotionally, I've really put myself through the ringer these past few months I suppose this all a blessing in disguise in the end!

I hope you can get somewhere Pocketsocks so that you aren't so tired?

I'm the opposite of you tbh. I'm so laid back about things. Apart from if we're going away on holiday. I always research the place,where to go, places to eat etc.. And I love finding things for people. I can be quite controlling about certain things but that's my personality. It doesn't tire me but may tire others?

I think a lot of people like making lists. Dp does but he admitted when watching that programme that he has a lot of tendencies and suppresses them. We'll need to talk about that some more.

I was talking with a friend about the OCD scale, that was kindamentioned in the program, I agree that everyone's on it at some degree, but what I liked in the program was that in the end even the large amount of tendancies that Jon had didn't make him diagnosable. I hope it the same for your DP.

Thank you for your good wishes, I think my goal is to be military organised and even maybe a little control freak, as long as the lists aren't controlling me, it's funny what a fine line there is. I imagine the difference is how much time you give to it. If you can plan it, list it, make notes and whatnot and then let it go, that's a good trait.

I wonder if the scale test is online?

I think as long as it isn't making you anxious or encroaching on your life or the lives of your loved ones then there isn't a problem? But I'm no expert it's just my opinion.

I imagine someone's probably somewhat scientifically made one up somewhere!

I think I agree, there's nothing wrong with being a little nutty as long as you have a handle on it in my opinion. Although I'm sure in some peoples estimations there is no such thing as a handled disorder.

Don't you think everyone has something? Us humans are complex individuals. Mine is panic disorder, it's controlled by citalopram though.

Everyone definatly has something I imagine its only "recently" we've started to catogorize everything though, whether that's a good thing or not remains to be seen.

Yes in one way it's good, too many people were locked up in institutions years ago for minor problems.

I couldn't watch this, DP has OCD and I couldn't face seeing how bad it could get :(. His focus at the moment is on recycling, he has to sort everything (I'm not allowed, it stresses him too much) and he has to list everything he puts in the bin. i'm on maternity leave so I spend a lot of time at home with the baby, surrounded by piles of recycling. I don't go in our living room during the day, it's too claustrophobic with rubbish literally months old. It's not dirty, and DP is trying his best to sort it but it gets me down.

Also, because this takes him so long I have to do all the other housework, cooking, shopping etc as he doesn't have time.

I always thought if you lived with someone with OCD it would be a really tidy house. How wrong I was...

Sorry, thread is not all about me...

Oh Rollersara that's so sad. How many dcs do you have? Is he getting any help for it? I'd say he sounds really bad. I really couldn't cope with that.

How do you have people over?

The program was somewhat helpful Rollersara, although very sad in places,for example it showed a place where people who had really gotten bad were admitted and helped, one thing they demonstrated was touching a toilet seat and rubbing your hands over your body (for those who have a thing with germs) Obviously that's not the first step you would make on the journey, but maybe if you and your DP had a chat about the bad he expects to happen if he doesnt do it, which parts in particular he feels he must do (is it the recycling or just something to list for example) how doing it makes him feel, maybe even like me has he realised he's not being rational at the moment, and maybe after some discussion he can be convinced to throw out a big armful of recycling list free of some other "aversion therapy" and then do what I like to call "he duck and cover" where you deal with the "oh my gosh what have I done the worlds going to end" and get him to pay attention to when the feeling doesnt't feel so bad.
I know it's all very easy for me to say but it's what I've been working on with myself and this week I've written 3 peoples holiday packing lists which make sense, are a little scruffy and disordered and I let my partner edit and a shopping list and cleaned my living room without have to catalogue my every move. Still writing lists, to "quell the urge" but trying to control myself.
I know its not as easy as all that and I do agree your partner does sound pretty bad and like its about time he sought proffessional help. But it's all about bay steps and being ready for help. for everyone involved.