When I found OCD recovery through Instagram, it felt like Nick and Rob (as I later discovered) were speaking directly to what I was feeling and thinking, like they had walked in my shoes. There was honesty conveyed in their message — a key ingredient in recovering from the realities of OCD — far from a walk in the park. I related to their message instantly.

In my first week of recovery, I was hesitant about exploring my fears, but Sam jumped straight into asking me about what I feared — a key part of recovery. OCD is a master at wanting to keep you from challenging your fears. Sam has taught me to confront my fears head-on. Throughout the journey, I have been taught and have discovered that OCD is a belief disorder, and that challenging one’s irrational beliefs in the correct way — which the team and coaches teach — can help decrease one’s OCD and bring clarity back to one’s life.

I am not recovered yet, but I have dramatically reduced the emotional disturbance I was once experiencing on a day-to-day basis and have learned how OCD operates. The biggest challenge for me has been changing my behaviour. Not only do we need to educate ourselves about OCD, but we also need to make the changes necessary to get better. Luckily for me, the coaches and the OCD Recovery WhatsApp group community have been instrumental in supporting me during the ups and downs, pushing me to change the behaviors that got me into this mess in the first place.

If I can learn to live with OCD, you can too. Many people have gone on to recover and even reduce OCD significantly. Give it time, give it patience, give it hard work — done the right way, as taught by the coaches. You can do it. There is hope beyond imagination.