I’m in my late 60s OP and I’ve had OCD -on and off, and in varying degrees - since I gave birth to my first child at 19 and came home concerned I was going to cause his death by ‘germs.’ I had anxiety prior to that though, which manifested as anxiety attacks - a topic also not spoken about back then.
l’ve had CBT, talk therapy and medication at different times. They were somewhat effective - and what I’ve come to realize is that in times of unavoidable stress my OCD starts kicking back in. I challenge it, and as things start to get better, as the stressor resolves, it drops off again. It’s always there a bit, but nothing that stops me living my life.
After first experiencing OCD at 19 - when no one talked about it and few doctors knew about it, there was no treatment and I really feel that if there had been I would have had an easier life, although I still went on to bring up 3 healthy children (who don’t have any signs of OCD, one did have social anxiety), and I returned to my education and got a university degree, and held down many different jobs. I really didn’t have a career as such, but this was not due to OCD, it was because I became ill with something else.
My granddaughter aged19 has OCD, and I first recognised it when she was about 10. And she’s undertaken CBT - and talk therapy and now is on effective medication. She’s had her struggles, but she has finished her schooling and qualified for a place at university, but after a year of intense study she decided to take a year off. 6 months of which she worked in a ski resort. It was a bit of a rocky start at that job, but once she’d settled in it went fine. She’s returned with new confidence and is looking forward to taking up a university spot next year. One thing that has really helped my granddaughter was a 3 week in house hospital program she completed with other teens around her age last year. I’m in Australia so I don’t know if they have something similar where you live. It was difficult for her parents to persuade her to stay there during the first week, but after that she thrived. She left the program with new friends - a group of teens that stay in touch and are very supportive of each other - but I think what was equally as helpful was just being around kids in their late teens with similar problems. She realized she was not alone in this.
I’ve read they there are people who do manage to put OCD behind them completely, but I think for many of us it’s a matter of dealing with it and applying what we know when we need to - usually in times of stress.
I do think that the internalized pressure ocd sufferers have to hide their ocd because of judgemental people is unfortunate. If the world would just realize there is no normal, and that we all have our different stuff, maybe we could all just be open about it, and not fear social judgement, and all have a better life as a result.