Basically I went to my doctor when I was 15 and said look, this is what I've been doing/thinking, it's being going on as long as I can remember, gradually getting worse, and I realise that this is not normal. It affects my every day life massively, I get bullied at school because of it and I just want to know if there is anything I can do to fix it, he asked me a few questions and then referred me to the mental health bit of the surgery.. then when I saw the counsellor there, we had an interview so she could build up an idea of what problems I was having, and then after a few sessions of talking about things, she decided CBT would be the best way to help me. They got my parents in and stuff and explained everything to them aswell.
If anything they were impressed that I had decided to ask for help. To be honest though, It was pretty obvious that I have OCD.. I didn't say 'I think I have OCD' because I didn't really know much about it - as most people don't know about the obsession bit, they tend to think OCD is just washing hands a lot. I pretty much listed off the generic symptoms, because I was experiencing them and they took me seriously because it was clear that I was struggling, and I asked for help. During the time I was talking to the doctor I had to get my alcogel out twice because I'd touched the door to open it - even though I had touched it with my sleeve over my hand, and I was noticably anxious. He would have known something was wrong before I said anything..
|