Mental Health Success Stories

I remember the head counselor approaching me. She stood there, hovering over my small 14-year-old frame, and looked down at me sitting on the floor. I was leaning against a concrete wall during the camp’s…

I knew that there was something wrong from around the age of 10, as I was struggling with intense intrusive thoughts that felt too difficult to discuss with the adults around me. While I firmly…

I’ve had OCD as far back as I can remember, but I didn’t know it by that name for a long time. I think it’s important that we share our real, deep, truthful experiences so…

I can remember being emetophobic as young as 5 years old when I was worried about the anaesthesia making me sick when I had elbow surgery. My emetophobia must have manifested around age 3-4 and…

​I have had OCD for as long as I could remember. I was always told that I was just “too particular”. My themes as a child were related to even numbers. If I didn’t eat,…

My procrastination in completing this story is truly unparalleled. I’ve written countless pieces about OCD in my life. I dedicated every assignment, including the final shebang, in my doctoral program to writing about OCD. You’d…

My name is Mia, I’m 20 years old, a psychology student from Berkshire. And I have a little monster living in my brain. The monster came into my mind around the age of 8 and…

My story begins normally, I grew up in a working-class family, and lived a relatively good childhood, with a few traumas here and there, but nothing I would say that was out of the ordinary….

I’ve had Obsessive Compulsive Disorder my whole life. Was I aware of that? No. So when I went through a very dramatic diagnosis process I was quickly introduced to ERP as my main form of…

My name is Emily Berk, and I am a 27 year old woman with OCD. For the last 6 years I have been diagnosed with OCD, and suffered silently as a child, teen, and young…

As I stand on the precipice of another day, the relentless march of time keeps count—257 days have passed since that life-altering moment. The memory, like a relentless specter, clings to me, a heavy burden…

As I stepped outside, I felt a rush of positivity that could only be matched by the sun radiating above me. Graduating from the OCD Institute after giving the 110% effort that in-patient therapy demands,…

The interplay between faith and OCD has been woven into the very fabric of my life since my earliest memories. Throughout my journey, I’ve grappled with distressing worries and fears, tightly intertwined with an unshakable…

POCD is an OCD subtype revolving around the fear of being a pedophile. Similar to other subtypes, POCD has its own set of obsessions and compulsions (both mental and physical). Due to its sensitive nature,…

Health OCD, or as I like to call it, “WebMD on Steroids,” is a quirky subtype of obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) that takes hypochondria to a whole new level. These are the folks who have a…

Step right up, folks! Welcome to the wacky world of Harm OCD, where intrusive thoughts and irrational fears take center stage. Brace yourself for a mind-bending spectacle of worrying about accidental harm and performing compulsions…