OCD Action

nana
Member

I am not an OCD sufferer but two people from my close circle were diagnosed with OCD and OCPD recently, which pushed me to do some research. One is struggling with the fear of contamination and also with the fear of social exclusion. It is emotionally more difficult to enquire family or friends about their OCD, so I am looking for external info in order to understand and help them. How were you diagnosed with OCD? How was your experience with medical machines and doctors, your emotions at the time and your fears?

Sun Feb 14 2010 16:41:44 #
nana
Member

I forgot to say I'm new at the forum. Hi all!

Sun Feb 14 2010 22:14:23 #
Moocher
Member

I wouldn't have thought that a lot of people were actually diagnosed with OCD. Maybe doctors and what-have-you are better at doing it now but when I was a teenager I was always told by psychiatric people that I had depression. It was only through reading a magazine article that I recognized it as OCD. There aren't any medical machines that can diagnose OCD or treat it. It's treated with either CBT or medication.

Mon Feb 15 2010 1:25:52 #
swan
Member

I was diagnosed with ocd. Dont know how close you are to your friends. I had two frinds who red up on OCD WHICH WAS INITIALLY HELPFUL BUT THEN BECAME A LITTLE BIT OF KNOWLEDGE BEING DANGEROUS As they took things from the book literally and didn't take on board what medical professionals were saying. I read obessessive compulsive disorder the facts by padmAL DE SILVAL, Stanley. rACHMAN but when reading any book remember that we are all different. This will give you a basic understanding. Depemds on how close you are to your freinds as to how mich information they want to share with you. Its great to have really understanding friends. Anxiety related to ocd can make things really hard. I sometimes cancel meeting with people at last month, i have friends who are really understanding but some who are not.
All the best

Mon Feb 15 2010 11:20:36 #
Unregistered

Hi Moocher

I agree. I was first told (in Sussex by a very good psychiatrist) that I had obsessional neurosis). But then I moved to Devon and I received a different diagnosis from my GP. Having seen my house he decided it was depression and that I was being selfish and manipulative. Even when I was suicidal he still insisted that I was not ill and that it was a personality disorder. It was Professor Isaac Marks and his team at the Bethlem/Maudsley who finally diagnosed me 26 years later with severe OCD. By then I was 48 and I felt my life was over. But (as I have since found) it is never too late to get better and there is always time left to achieve your life's dreams.

OCD is hard to diagnose and GPs cannot be expected to understand all the complexities of mental illnesses. Added to this, our reticence and embarrassment make it harder for even the top experts to fully understand this extremely complex and disabling illness.

Hi Teresa, I am glad you were diagnosed quickly and recieved the help you needed. The situation is so much better today than it was in the early 1970s. But there is still so much to learn about OCD and the waiting lists are still too long for people with severe OCD.

Anne

Mon Feb 15 2010 12:27:11 #
swan
Member

I was diagnosed at the age of 39 having had ocd since i was ten!!!!!!!, so not a quick diagnosis at all, i was just pointing out that it is possible to have a diagnosis of ocd and so didnt put down all the details.

Mon Feb 15 2010 12:48:50 #
Unregistered

Hi Teresa

Sorry

I did not mean to offend you. The wait doesn't help does it? It broke up one marriage and damaged my second one which is only just mending now.I think CCBT on line will help clear the backlog a lot and allow people control over their own treatment.

Anne xx

Mon Feb 15 2010 12:56:41 #
swan
Member

No problem, im afraid i dont share your enthusiasim for cbt, i had treatment locally and the number of sessions was continually changed, went to mausdley which was totally not helpful , today my social worker has said i need to see someone elses as my health is deteriorating. So not in that good a mood.

Mon Feb 15 2010 14:44:29 #
DEAD!
Blocked

Mine was fine my GP knew about it a little.

I got diagnosed by a nurse.
I have CBT every week, at first it wasn't really helping, but now I have an amazing doctor, so it's great.

I have contamination OCD

Mon Feb 15 2010 14:57:04 #
James
Member

I was diagnosed with obsessional neurosis back in '84 and obsessional fears in '85, having less of the compulsive element back then, if I remember rightly. I was also put on valium. More recently,a psychiatrist diagnosed OCD and recommended an SSRI. In fairness, my problem did change over time, but it seems that the diagnoses and treatments do as well. In the future, sad to say, I am likely to have obsessive anxiety in some form, and there will be other ways of describing it and other ways of treating it.

Mon Feb 15 2010 16:09:56 #