I just want to give you a bit of an insight into OCD as it is so often used as a throwaway word these days but OCD really can become life-destroying! Not only to the sufferer but also to their families. OCD can become all-consuming. You will miss out on parts of the day or in more severe cases all of it because you are so emerged in fear, anxiety, and having to perform rituals or compulsions just to feel ok for a few minutes. It can stop you from doing the things that you want to do like going places, seeing friends, etc. The trouble is OCD is very clever and every time we carry out a behavior or action to make intrusive thoughts or feelings disappear we are feeding the “monster” and making it stronger. So in turn you will need to carry out more rituals or compulsions in order to feel better. This is a vicious circle. I have had OCD since I was a child although not recognising it as OCD until I was in my teens. Now I have it under control and I like to use the sentence “I have OCD but OCD no longer has me!” My passion is to help children be able to say the same thing. I look back at photographs now and in the majority I always had long sleeves that would cover my hands this, was so I didn’t have to touch anything with my hands.  I would wash my hands so much that the skin would crack and bleed. I would have rituals that I carried out before I went to bed to make sure everything would be ok. It would take me over an hour from going up to bed to actually be able to get into bed. Having to do all these things made me very disorganized in other aspects of my life because my main focus was on OCD. I was very good at masking it when I was not at home but found it really difficult at school because my level of anxiety was so high. a reaction to masking all day long was that when I got home I was not in a good mood I had to carry out certain compulsions as soon as got in to feel calm again. As the OCD Monster gets to work it can bring about a lot of different feelings and unwanted behaviors. Your child will feel anxious and could be frustrated as they do not wish to feel this way or carry out the compulsions but they have to. Moodiness and anger can come into play as they are having a battle with the OCD monster. Looking back now I can see how my behavior affected my family. They would get frustrated with me as they couldn’t understand OCD and would say that I was not thinking logically about things and was being irrational. We have all learned now that OCD is neither logical nor rational but you can get better and the monster can be tamed.