Anyone diagnosed with OCD or have any symptoms??

Talking to a GP is a good place to start, but I would urge you to ask for a referral to psychotherapy for a diagnosis as GPs aren't really qualified to deal with mental health issues.  Its tempting I know to self diagnose ,we all do it but it's not a good thing to do with mental health issues. Simply because we get an idea into our heads which a therapist will need to remove in essence to allow them to make a proper diagnosis. 

Yes indeed some of your issues could be seen as OCD, but they could also be general anxiety- there is often a lot of crossover, it will take a psychologist or psychiatrist to make a proper diagnosis over a period of a few sessions . I wish you luck finding the answers you need, please,never Google symptoms-  something we are all guilty of,me especially, but it never ever helps and can really slow down a psychologists work.

A gp will try to.make an.initial diagnosis and I would really insist on that being done only by mental health professionals. Gps often err on the side of simplicity for mental health issues,they have no training for such things

UR probably on the right track.. R there any councelors at school? That may be a good place to start.

at least u don't do what I do write my lists then forget where I put them...

I have ADHD/Aspergers .. I take meds to help slow me down... I tend to try to do to many things at once..never quite finishing anything.. On the flip side there r pros & cons with any disorder.

 

It's worth remembering that any condition that you may have died not automatically mean you need medication . Many problems can be equally or better treated with therapy .this is the route I go down,for me medication isn't the answer, this is just my preference, they can work well for many.

Jmcg and hope4cure,

Thank you both for your helpful comments. Rather than repeat information to both of you, I decided to just write this back to both of you as it covers both of your questions. Apologies for the crazy length of this but I guess I have never gone into detail on this before with anyone and I found it kind of helpful to talk through it properly as it explains the difficulties of it better.

I agree with all you have said above. I have been to my GP about depression/anxiety /severe insomnia/body image issues a couple of times now. He prescribed citalopram and I have been on it for nearly 4 months. I find it helps but I am not shall we say really happy, just not as sad. [I did feel really happy at the start but I guess I am in difficult circumstances at the minute so I think I won’t feel fully happy until I get through my exams and get my degree. Otherwise there’s always the fear that if I fail one exam that I will have to repeat the whole year and that is definitely I can’t face into. ] The doc also really stressed (and I agree with both you and him on this one) that the medication is not a one step cure and that therapy while on the medication is the best route to go.

As therapy can be quite expensive, I have availed of the counselling service at my university twice. However they only give out 6 week sessions before you have to go on a waiting list again. I went to counselling early on in the year for 6 weeks. I did not find it a great help but then I was so negative and skeptical at the time, I did not take any of my counsellor’s advice so part of that was my fault. But then I went to CBT which finished in early April. I found it really helpful and I did all my exercises. I didn’t feel ready to face my exams on my own and I said this to my therapist but I think she was just delighted that my depression score had significantly decreased. I was then “just below threshold”( by one point). You can ask for 3-6 more sessions and I did express an interest in this but she stayed quiet and then I just kind of said “But now that I see my score maybe I will be fine” because I hate asking for more help.  She was really happy at this and had even asked whether I wanted to stay for the rest of the hour or to just go straight after taking my depression score test and getting the results, so I think she was just happy to get rid of me, harsh as it sounds. I had deferred most of my exams and was only sitting two but I still failed one. I had a panic attack right before/during the exam. It was all because I didn’t study for it the right way. I focused too much on finding and researching extra information instead of actually learning the material and I found I had loads of notes that I just didn’t know.The reason why I started getting help this year was that I had a nocturnal panic attack and I thought there was something wrong with my heart as two of my aunties have a heart condition. I went into the student health unit. They ran a whole pile of tests, including blood tests, asked how college was going (they would have it on record that I had many infections, some of them recurring as well as a history of IBS) and just told me I was “fine”. They did an ECG but not one after exercise. My aunty had told me her heart irregularity only showed up after exercise so in my mind, their tests were futile and proved nothing. I was still terrified by the idea that there might be something wrong with my heart. The nurse prevented me telling the doctor that I did have chest pain on one occasion while exercising but I had forgotten to say it to the doctor when she asked me and only remembered after. The nurse just fobbed  it off and said that “I did an ECG and it was fine, so you didn’t damage your heart then.”. I wasn’t worried about having damaged it. I was worried that it could have been the same condition my aunties had coming to the fore as I was exercising. I was also afraid, that the heart palpitations were not simply due to stress, but due to stress-induced presentation of the condition my aunties had as this is when it manifests itself. Anyways,  I just wish they had told me they thought I had a problem with anxiety rather than telling me I was fine and sending me off home. The nurse even tried to make the receptionist schedule my appointment when I had a lecture instead of letting me come in at first thing in the morning so that “some poor soul who was really suffering” could be seen first thing in the morning, rather than having me come in then to find out my blood tests.

My counsellor didn’t give a diagnosis but I don’t think they can? Then my therapist never did either except saying that maybe I had an eating problem and to mention that to my doctor and he might refer me on to someone else as “it would take a lot of work to figure out when it started” etc. (SCAPEGOAT!)

I have said to both the counsellor and the therapist that I thought I had OCD but they used to just nod and listen, rather than say yes I think you do. I know I have depression and anxiety, that is undeniable and I guess has been confirmed by different surveys I have done and physical symptoms I I have anyways.

I was advised by someone else on this site to ask for a diagnosis at the first session and a plan of treatment but I guess such assertion is a challenge for me!

My Mum also says not to self-diagnose but then I feel like she delays sorting out getting me on a waiting list to see someone. I am now availing of more free services. I believe the first sessions I am starting on Monday are jsut with a counsellor but I’ll just be glad to talk to anyone at this stage and i feel determined to get the most out of it and ask to talk about and deal with what’s bothering me most.

I am not in a financial position to pay for my own treatment so it makes things a bit harder. My sister offered to pay for therapy but then my parents said they’d pay for it. But now all of a sudden  I find  myself availing of free services again that have a time limit on them. I hate that as building up trust with a new counsellor and the waiting in between sessions can mean I go right back downhill again but they just don’t seem to understand, Parents: “ You’d have to wait 5 weeks to see a private therapist anyways.” Me: “Yes but at least it would be continuous and uninterrupted. I could settle with someone I like and continue to see them.”. They seem to keep thinking you can just ask for more sessions if you’re not ready and I keep saying, if they have a time limit on it, it’s for a reason!

Anyways, it’s not all bad right now as I have it arranged that  I have 6-8 weeks in  a youth centre and then I can avail of 5 weeks with a therapist through my mum’s health insurance plan. Once you call them, they have to give you an appointment within 5 days so this means I will be seen for at least a continuous 11 weeks that will run through my exams. I am happy at that as it is a lot of time to work through things and the support will be there in the lead up to and during my exams when  I will need it most Still i find my parents lack of understanding for my need to be comfortable with my treatment options frustrating. They tried to make me feel guilty for not wanting to avail of phone therapy sessions even though I tried to explain how hard it can be to start telling a new person some of your most personal and intimate problems. I tried to say how sometimes  I have to write it down beforehand and just show it to the therapist. But of course they come up with reasons why it would be fine. “That’s ok if you don’t want to even try it.” = guilt-trip sentence if I ever saw it!

But anyways, that’s not the point anymore as I am starting sessions on Monday with a support worker in the youth centre and i have a plan for 11 weeks minimum which should be fine. I just can’t help feeling frustrated sometimes! (If you don’t want to pay for therapy, then let my sister pay but don’t take over, push me into free options I am not comfortable with and then try to manipulate the services and say that they’d have to give me more sessions if I wasn’t ready!!!)

Thanks again for your comments and apologies again about the length of this but I love detail as I find it is clear. Leaving out details only leads to questions back and forth and I just thnk it’s easier to say it all from the start.

Anonymousgirl x

Hello anonymous girl,

I can understand how horrible it is to be in the grip of this condition. It's like you are being controlled by it. You can't continue to suffer. It is due to a chemical imbalance in the brain and you can take medications to correct that. there is also therapy that can really help you. I hope you get the help you need and get control back of your life. 

Good luck to you anonymous girl!