“OCD has always impacted my life for as long as I can remember. It has been something that caused me to constantly doubt everything around me, whether that was in school and doubting that I actually understood things, or doubting that I could actually follow directions correctly.”

“What ifs continue to impact my life. I think for me the what if of not being good enough, of not being perfect. I still wish people could understand how devasting this OCD really is.”

“Hope is knowing that every time we fight our OCD, we get to take a step closer to every single thing in our life that’s meaningful to us.”

“I had no clue this was OCD. I had not been treated for OCD. My insight was so poor, that I thought that I was these things. These what if thoughts, I thought were absolutely 100% true.”

“That’s where my choice comes into play, whether or not I take the bait, whether or not I go down the rabbit hole. And so this fear about what if I’m stuck in my head forever, interestingly enough, I get some say in whether or not that fear comes true.”

“I think the hardest part about having Obsessive Compulsive Disorder, besides the exhaustive rituals, the torment that was in my brain, was the loneliness and isolation.”

“It just snowballs. Everything snowballs in OCD. So you gotta just not pick up the snow. Just gotta let it be, let the snow hit the ground, let the thought hit the ground, and just don’t pick it up.”

“I was unrecognisable to my family and friends. I had stopped being able to care for myself, brush my teeth, wash my face. I was completely debilitated by my intrusive thoughts and by rumination. I barely left my apartment. I definitely had my world turned upside down because of my OCD.”

“OCD can start really small, but when it gets to be really really bad, it can completely debilitate you. It tore my life completely apart.”

“My experience with OCD has been a journey. Not every day is going to be good, and not every day is going to be bad. I do want people to know that there is help available and you’re not alone in this…”

“That’s a piece that I wish more people saw, was just the freedom of choice that I regained and the fact that I’m able now to choose things that are values consistently, where as before, I felt really shamed and scared to choose anything besides my OCD.”