F is for Finding Help
It can feel nearly impossible to locate a good therapist. And when you’re deep in a mental illness spiral, doing research and making phone calls is the last thing you feel like doing. Luckily, I am fortunate to have an excellent support system in the form of my family and fiancé. (When I first started going to therapy I did not know my fiancé yet. So it was entirely my family who got me the help I needed.)
The thing about OCD is that it requires special knowledge to treat. I have seen three therapists and one psychiatrist in my life. One therapist treated me as a small child and diagnosed me with Generalized Anxiety Disorder. A decade later, another therapist treated me for GAD and helped me with my phobias (see Exposure Therapy). However, neither of them spotted the fact that I have OCD, and it was my third therapist who diagnosed and treated me for it. So although therapy for anxiety is useful for someone with OCD, you really want to find a therapist who specializes in it.
You can talk to your primary care doctor to start with. There is a “Find Help” page on the International OCD Foundation’s website, https://iocdf.org, that can help you locate therapy near you. Group therapy is usually more affordable than individual therapy. I have done both and found them both helpful in different ways. Sometimes OCD hits such taboo subjects that you don’t want to discuss it in a group setting, but everyone there is in the same boat and you’re all in it together. Therapy can be cost-prohibitive, and I am extremely lucky to have had access to it. I wish it were a different world.