Constant intrusive thoughts that come with obsessive-compulsive disorder [OCD] can be exhausting.
That’s an experience shared by Normal’s Claire Nichols. She said when she was a child, her OCD began with frequent bathroom visits.
“I have my first memories of having obsessions and compulsions around age 10,” Nichols said, explaining she would use the bathroom several times until “it felt just right.”
“At 10 years old, you’re like, ‘that’s weird.’ It was distressful because I couldn’t sleep until that happened. You don’t understand what’s happening at that age,” she said.
After being diagnosed, Nichols said her “whole life made sense.” She added she realized how OCD had affected her entire life for the past 30 years.
She said those sorts of obsessions and compulsions continued as she progressed through life. Nichols is now 39 and was diagnosed with OCD last year.
After being told for so long that she just had generalized anxiety, she said, “I knew it was much more than that.”
According to mental health professionals, Nichols’ experience is not uncommon. Shannon Griffith, a licensed clinical professional counselor with Normal-based Moonflower Counseling, said on average, diagnosing OCD can take 7 years from when symptoms first start occurring.
"I see it very commonly in our community among other therapists that they don't know or don't understand fully what OCD can entail. They miss a lot of the signs of it and just dismiss it as something like generalized anxiety disorder,” Griffith said.
Treatment and themes
Griffith said she sees people across the spectrum of OCD, noting that there are so many themes of the disorder that it’s “so easy to miss.”
Nichols said she wants people to know that OCD is “so much more than the stereotypical wanting to be clean or wanting to organize things.”
“A lot of people that hear the term OCD think of a compulsion as an outward or physical act, where the majority of my compulsions are all inward. They all live in my head,” Nichols said.
She was previously getting cognitive behavioral therapy as treatment for general anxiety, but Nichols said that was probably keeping her stuck or making OCD worse.
“It was kind of just perpetuating that my thoughts were normal and they were OK instead of what I’m doing now, which is ERP [exposure response prevention].”
ERP helps her learn how to “sit with the uncertainty and use what’s called non-engagement responses to kind of learn to live with the thoughts,” she said.
As a licensed clinical professional counselor, Griffith encouraged people to get checked out for OCD if it starts to become difficult for them to be present with family members, stay focused at work or otherwise engaged in life.
She said she also encourages other people in the medical field to get further training and education on what OCD can look like. While there is research that examines what’s going on inside the brain, Griffith said they’re still trying to identify the genes that cause OCD, among other factors.
From Oct. 11-17, advocates around the world are observing OCD Awareness Week to help educate people about the disorder and encourage people to access treatment. The International OCD Foundation stated on its website that about 1 in 40 adults have OCD or will develop it an some point in their lives. That's about 8.2 million people in the United States.
Nichols said it’s important for her to be an advocate for this disorder “because I know how absolutely lonely and isolating it can be.”
She said it has affected her relationships, but her husband, parents and sister have been very supportive.
“I definitely think when I was in the worst of it, I would kind of push people away. But on the same side, I was constantly reassurance seeking … wanting reassurance that I was going to be OK,” Nichols said. “But as I’ve recovered, my relationships have definitely improved, and I would even say that it’s made them stronger.”
