Hi Glad
I have not forgotten about my offer of help. I promise I will get around to it. As I think I told you during our telephone conversation, I am actively seeking employment following my recovery. I am up to my eyes in application forms.
Take care for now
Lumpy
Unregistered
Thanks Lumpy
No rush just yet.
Very best of luck with the job applications.
Anne
Hiya Anne, hope your well.
Well just an udate my lovely!! I have been writing my story and my personal meaning of how my OCD actually began. There have been some chapters that have truly challenged my thinking in the last few days. I wonder how you must be coming along. my only problem is ending the article because just when I feel I have said it all, something else pops up and it's too important not to include 
guess that must be a good thing.
wishing you well
love Pam
Unregistered
Hi Freddy
Yes please. I would love to have your personal story.
I will PM you after breakfast.
Many thanks
Anne
Unregistered
Just to say that I probably will be going on with the project but will not be operating from the forum. So if you still want to join in perhaps you can email me.
Thanks for all your kindness and help.
Anne
Unregistered
I don't think I have your email, Glad. Does this mean we can't talk on here anymore, that is sad. 
Unregistered
Hi everyone. If any of you guys still have any personal stories of your experiences with OCD to share. I will make sure Anne gets them. It would be really helpful. Doesn't have to be long...
Oh this is good news. I am sure many would love to contribute their stories as the purpose of this wonderful project is to reach, inform and support not only us but the wider audience who are trying to recover. I am still working on mine 
Keep up the good work Anne, and thanks NikiAnne for letting us know.
Pam
Unregistered
Pam - your story is absolutely welcome please still contribute!
Welcome back Gladis!!
Thank you so much for reconsidering to come back!! and for reasuring myself and others who would like to contribute to the project via PM. The project is a worthwhile cause and will give many a voice to share their own valuable experiences if they so wish. Also thanks Nikki I will be sending in my contribution as soon as I refine it. It's lovely to have you back Gladis!!
Pam
Unregistered
Thanks for still answering PMs. 
Unregistered
Hi Gladis here
I just wanted to confirm that I am still actively working on the project and hope to finish it in 2 years max.
Firstly, I am writing to ask if any members with contamination OCD would like to help in a mini-survey linked to the questionnaires. If so please PM or email me.
Secondly, just to say that if you still want to have your questions included on the sufferers' questionnaire please let me know by 5th April. The suggestions you have already provided me with are really interesting and will result in a unique questionnaire.
Thirdly, I am still looking for people willing to read and review books on OCD. I will, of course, be reading all mine, but what is important is your views and not just mine. What I really would like to know is how much they have helped you to control your OCD, what advice you found particularly useful or unuseful and whether or not you think they are an important part in the healing process.
Best wishes to you all
Anne
Unregistered
Hi all
As the forum is a tad quiet today and as there are lots of new members I just thought I would quietly post again with an update.
I am working on the questionnaires and simultaneously collecting your personal stories and sorting them into various folders. I have received a lot of valuable input, but I am still lacking personal stories from UK sufferers. Around 70% of my stories are from the US, Europe and elsewhere.
From the hundreds of PMs and emails I have received, I know that, for some, writing a couple of pages on their experience of OCD is simply too much. I have found many ways round this and the end results are really exciting. Some give me their stories in instalments which I can piece together. Others still, are providing me with a week of diary entries (200-300 words a day) - a suggestion given by a forum member. Others prefer to participate in mini- surveys.
If you would be prepared to provide any of these things please PM me. I am particularly interested to hear more from non-contamination OCDers. But, having said this, all offers would be most welcome. I end by giving you my promise that all contributions (except mine) will remain anonymous.
Thanks again for your kindness and wonderful support
Anne
Unregistered
Hi everyone.
Just to say thanks to everyone who has sent me their diary entries and personal stories. I have brought the deadline forward to May 31st. So if you still want to have your personal story included please can you let me have it by that date. What I would find really helpful now are: small accounts (1,000 words max) of your successful coping strategies; your successes and failures on meds; and your successes and failures with CBT/ERP. In each case it would be helpful if you could outline your OCD symptoms. Thanks again, Love, Anne
Unregistered
Hi all
Just to remind you all that the closing date for personal stories is 31st May.
I have compiled a manual questionnaire based on all your suggestions and Andrea (mama) is in the process of compiling a most attractive on-line questionnaire. We are hoping to finish and coordinate both in about a fortnight and will give you further details about how to access them and send them back to me then.
Very best wishes to you all
Anne
Unregistered
Hi dear friends
I am excited to let you know that the questionnaire is complete and has been launched on the site this morning by our Director Joel. So, very many thanks to all of you who have participated by providing us with questions. We could not have created this unique survey without your input.
There are two version of the questionnaire - an online version and a manual one. The online version should take less than 30 minutes to complete. You can access both questionnaires direct from this site under the heading 'The Book' which is in blue print under the heading 'What's New' to the side of this page as well as on the Press and Media page. The questionnaire is totally confidential - it neither asks for your name nor your gender.
We are aiming (and desperatley hoping) for at least 100 completed surveys to make the book a success. The more data we collect the more credibility the book will have and the more we are likely to change things for ourselves in the future.
If you have any other questions please feel free to contact us at ocdsurvey@btinternet.com.
Very many thanks
Anne and friends
ps This survey is also going to be launched today in the US on the Yahoo forum, so this is now a cross-Atlantic venture. All profits from the boook are going to be divided between OCD Action, The OC Foundation in the US and other OCD Charities.
Unregistered
Hi folks
I have not posted on this one for a couple of weeks so I thought I would keep you updated re your personal contributions.
I am still looking for someone to write book reviews. If necessary I can act as a lending libray as I have bought around 20 books on the subject. I see that many of you love 'Brain Lock', 'The OCD Work Book', 'Stop Obsessing' and 'Imp of the Mind.' Would anyone be prepared to tell us what is useful about any of these books so that those new to OCD will know which book to buy.
Many of those who have answered the survey say that they do not where to start.
Thanks so much
Anne and friends
Unregistered
Dear all
I just wanted to give you an update on the survey. We have received 87 completed surveys. 13 more were started but not finished. If you wish to go back, if you use the same link you should be able to access it again. 55 of these are from this forum which represents just under 10% - which is really good. The remainder are from the US Yahoo Forum – very many thanks to Andrea and Wendy for their help.
The results are extraordinary – very moving and very detailed. Some of you have given long accounts of what you have gone through. Being able to be anonymous has clearly helped. A surprising finding is that contamination OCD is not coming out as the top sub-group, but it is also enlightening to find that most of you have more than one sub-type – as I suspected.
We still need at least another 100 completed surveys to ensure that this questionnaire carries real weight. We would love to hear from more under 25s as their problems are different from oldies such as me. But all are welcome. It is a worldwide survey so please join in regardless of where you live.
Grateful thanks
Anne and friends
Unregistered
sorry just to add to enter the on-line survey all you have to do is press the blue topic to the right of this page 'OCD Survey' and then press 'complete the questionnaire on-line.'
Unregistered
Dear all
Just a quick update. We are planning to write The Book up over the winter months so as to try and get it finished and published by the end of next year. That way we will not let down those of you who are still being let down by the system. We now have editors and proof readers in place and someone who has agreed to market the book and try to raise funding if we have to self-publish.
So, we will close the survey at the end of September so we can analyse the results and use them in the book.
We are also making the end of September the closing date for sending in chapters and contributions. This is so that I can work out a chapter plan. Just to confirm again that I am the only one who knows who has written what – so you can be assured that you will remain anonymous.
The book is going to be totally different from anything written so far. We now have carers contributing as well as sufferers. This results in a much fuller picture of the real impact on lives which OCD has.
I have thoroughly enjoyed doing this project and am so grateful to everyone who has helped.
If you have not yet participated but still want to be part of this exciting venture please contact me by PM.
Very best wishes
Anne and Friends.
Unregistered
Hi All
I just wanted to say that I know we do criticise some of what is written by the professional in their books etc on this forum, but that will not be done in Our Book. The aim of Our Book is to fill in the missing pieces of the jigsaw that only we sufferers know. So although we will be quoting from books it will be done in an academic way. We may sometimes feel we have to challenge what has been said, some of the poor treatment we have had, lack of funding and long waits, but the aim is to work with not against the professionals, for the purpose of finding more targeted treatment. After all we are all different: all of us have different symptoms; all have different degrees of fear; all have different life styles and stresses to cope with.
We would have loved to have had professionals involved in the book. As therapists agree, therapy is a two way bargain and we learn from each other and by doing so we gain mutual respect and the ability to be more open and honest. But we understand that the majority of professionals are very busy and have not the time to be actively involved.
Many of us, who have had long periods when our OCD is under a high degree of control, have been in that position due to successful ERP or CBT. But many others have been less successful because, as the experts acknowledge, CBT/ERP does not work for everyone. So we will also talk about where therapy has failed for various reasons. By doing this, we will not make people who cannot get control of their OCD feel ashamed or guilty or failures. We are well aware that they have tried these therapies and have found they do not bring control.
We will also point out the coping mechanisms and alternative therapies which many of us use alongside conventional therapy/meds to keep up our control. When we finish treatment, we have everyday problems to cope with such as: angry relatives who are unable to understand even though they really love us; having to cope with sick children and or elderly dying parents; losing our jobs; failing at exams and all the other stresses of life. So we can sometimes slowly unravel without realising it until we lose our control all off a sudden. Sometimes this happens straight away, sometimes after 12 years or more. As such, we will not be talking about cure or recovery but about degrees of control.
The reason why our book will be different is because only WE OCDers experience the real fear that OCD causes, only we know how hard it is to fend off thoughts all day long. Only WE know how hard life is when we have to cope with OCD as well as careers, housework, exams, university degrees, and family sickness and bereavements. As such we will be talking from a unique angle, and, because most of us will be anonymous, we will be writing about things which we may have never dared speak of before.
If you have not yet given us your story and would still like to contribute please PM me. The closing date is the end of September.
Very best wishes
Anne
Unregistered
Hi
Just to say that it is not too late if you wish to offer a contribution for the book. I would love to have small acounts from OCDers who have got control as a result of meds alone or who have found that sports or artistic hobbies have been particularly helpful. I would also love to receive small book reviews.
Finally are still 63 surveys completed short. The link is: http://www.surveymonkey.com/s.aspx?sm=_2fYkVhe6n4zgeUJjjaY9N5A_3d_3d
Looking forward to hearing from you.
Best wishes
Anne
ps this is a non-profit venture as all profits will be donated to OCD charities including OCD Action.
Unregistered
Hi
Just to say that it is not too late if you wish to offer a contribution for the book. I would love to have small acounts from OCDers who have got control as a result of meds alone or who have found that sports or artistic hobbies have been particularly helpful. I would also love to receive small book reviews.
Finally, we are still 63 surveys short. The link is: http://www.surveymonkey.com/s.aspx?sm=_2fYkVhe6n4zgeUJjjaY9N5A_3d_3d
Looking forward to hearing from you.
Best wishes
Anne
ps this is a non-profit venture as all profits will be donated to OCD charities including OCD Action.
Unregistered
Hi Everyone
I am just writing to thank everyone who has taken part in The Project.
It has been an overwhelming success. I have a few more accounts still to arrive in my mail box but hope to end up with over 50 contributors.
I have received completed surveys from: The UK and Northern Ireland, Ireland, The Channel Islands, The Netherlands,The USA, Canada, India, Bangladesh, The Middle East and Singapore. Some of these surveys include full personal stories which I will include in the book. Together the surveys provide a wealth of information regarding the devastating effects which OCD has on our lives and, hence, why more needs to be done to help us get control.
I won't be posting on this topic for a few months as there is a huge amount of analysing to be done.
I hope to see some of you at next years conference.
Thanks so much to all of you who have helped
Very best wishes
Anne (the editor) and partners and friends.
You must log in to post.
- Forum section
- New post in forum
- Topic post
- New post in topic
- Announcement, important
- Support Question
- Resolved Support Question
- Locked topic
- Hot topic
The OCD at School Project aims to provide support to young people with OCD in secondary schools in the Greater London area.
We rely solely on generous donations to ensure that we can keep our work going.
Support and information resources, find out more OCD related books, find external resources, and articles.
Helpline: 0845 390 6232 / 020 7253 2664
Helpline email: support@ocdaction.org.uk
Office: 020 7253 5272
Office email: info@ocdaction.org.uk
© 2008 - 2009 OCD Action, Registered charity No: 1035213.
Suite 506-507 Davina House, 137-149 Goswell Road, London EC1V 7ET.
Designed by Obscuresounds Ltd.
