Do diagnosis' help?

[maskedparade]

Hello everyone,

Does anyone know that they suffer from OCD, but doesn't actually have a diagnosis? Do diagnosis' serve any purpose?

I already have quite extensive input from the mental health team and I'm already on medication, so do I need a diagnosis?

I know a lot of people who don't have OCD say things like "oh I'm so OCD about that" when in reality, they're really not, so I'm not just self-diagnosing in that sense. I struggle greatly with major intrusive thoughts, I don't know what type of OCD this comes under as I don't really know a lot about it, but I also have to touch things with both hands, sometimes if it's a purposeful touch, like I'm opening a door, it's okay to just do it with one hand, but definitely if I touch something by accident, with any part of my body, I have to do it again with the opposite side of my body, and if I don't get it spot on, I have to keep doing it until it's right. I also need all doors, draws, cupboards etc shut correctly, I can't stand them being slightly ajar, it makes me itchy and anxious until I've closed them. I have to walk with even steps, so they both my feet feel right. The majority of my symptoms are about equalness (I don't think that's a word!) of my body, everything has to be balanced out evenly.

I've never really discussed this with anyone I see professionally because it's never really greatly impacted my life, but I moved in with my partner in March and it's starting to affect her, so I do feel like I could use some help with it, but I guess the question I'm asking is, do I need a formal diagnosis?

Thank you,
~Sam

[MyNameIsTerry]

Hi Sam,

I suggest you have a read of this as it will help show you a fair amount of what we can experience in OCD. It's not an exhaustive list though:

https://www.ocduk.org/types-ocd

It sounds to me like you have a mixture of obsessive & compulsive components but a professional would need to review them all, and how they affect you, in order to make the correct diagnosis.

It does sounds like you have some Symmetrical Thinking going on in there as well as the intrusive thoughts. I had compulsions like yours too, using odds & evens & multiples in touching/checking rituals until it felt "just right". It's very frustrating.

Ignore the whole "I'm a wee bit OCD" BS in the media. OCD is a disorder and it's not just the behaiours that warrant a diagnosis, it's about impact on your life as well. Otherwise most human beings would probably have a diagnosis.

Are you sure it's never impacted your life? You say you struggle greatly with intrusive thoughts so to me it does impact your life and warrants attention from a professional.

As far as the type of diagnosis, it depends. Intrusive thoughts can be found in anyone but from a diagnostic point of view if they become a problem they are split between OCD and depression depending on the main symptoms being experienced. Within OCD though, since the UK use the WHO manual, it splits between "Obsession-based", "Compulsion-based" and "Mixed" with a couple of other nondescript catchall lables for those who don't quite fit the main three.

[maskedparade]

Thank you so much for your reply Terry,
I didn't, until very recently, know that intrusive thoughts were part of OCD. Ask me questions about pretty much any other mental illness and I'll know something about it, but with OCD, I'm very uneducated, because I never thought I needed to know about it. I'll have a read of the link you gave me, thank you. The symmetry thing can be very annoying and time consuming but I just kind of got on with it, but now it's all affecting my partner I want to do something about it. I have a psychiatrist so I think I'll talk to him about it, it's just scary you know, being 27 and starting to open up a whole new mental can of worms!

[MyNameIsTerry]

I was the same, Sam. I didn't know much at all about anxiety really, unlike you, with being new to (had a breakdown due to work stress) as it started when I hit thirty. I did know it was only anxiety though because I trusted my GP But when the OCD came about 5 years later, due to a new med, I suddenly had loads of behaviours I just didn't understand.

My knowledge of OCD was what I had seen in the media so it was the typical cleaning, checking locks & nobs and hoarding. I had no idea about how diverse it was and it came as somewhat of a relief to learn about themes like intrusive thoughts which I had assumed were more serious mental health problems.

[maskedparade]

I always thought OCD was just hand washing and checking, I never knew about all the other aspects. There was a documentary about OCD on the TV a few months ago and I was watching it like "oh my god, I've definitely got it". It pops up without me evening recognising it's OCD, I've just finished a driving lesson and said to my instructor is there any way of going over these road bumps evenly so I don't feel a car going over it on one side? And she asked me if I had OCD, I didn't even realise it when asking, but the feeling of the car going over the road bumps unevenly makes me feel itchy and anxious.