OCD Diagnosis! 😱

Since August last year I’d been living with the belief that I had an OCD diagnosis— because it was mentioned in the psychiatrist’s report after my private autism diagnosis. It was in my notes that I wanted an OCD assessment after the autism one, and it came up in conversation during the autism assessment.

Anyway the reason the psychiatrist listed it in the report under ‘diagnoses’ was she mistakenly thought I already had that diagnosis. So I scheduled an OCD assessment call for last Monday (the money donated to me last year more than covered the autism assessment costs!). Sarah at Stepping Forward charity let me use their office as I don’t currently have a good enough internet connection for video calls. Even though the appointment was at 6pm, her husband was there so I could do the call. Really nice of them!

The assessment went as expected and I received the diagnosis! I just received the report today which is again satisfying to receive and actually very accurate. Especially satisfying is the emphasis on the shared living stuff— this will really help me!

RoBIN has been experiencing symptoms of obsessions and compulsions (OCD) since childhood. OCD is presented in different degrees at different stages of his life.

He has experienced trauma in his childhood, and this might have triggered his OCD symptoms. Over the last 3 years, OCD has become debilitating for RoBIN. One of the triggers was his changing home circumstance like homelessness and relocation of home.

He struggled to live in a shared place. It takes lot of his time cleaning up and tidying. He struggles to complete his basic tasks and finds it very stressful. For e.g., he finds reading has been particularly affected.

He has some blinking rituals, focusing on heartbeats constantly. He is experiencing intrusive sexual thoughts. He described himself as a perfectionist. His work as a Computer Programmer was affected due to his OCD. His work was slow due to repeated typing and deleting. He has struggled due to ritualistic glancing.

At school, RoBIN was good in Maths, English and Science. He did not enjoy going to school. He noticed obsessions from young age of six. He had to recite the same rhyme before going to bed. His teacher has reported that he used to put several dots at the end of a sentence.

RoBIN’s mental health has deteriorated while living in shared property. He takes lot of time cleaning and tidying. He now uses electric scooter, which has improved his mobility. He has attended a week of meditation retreat in Scotland in 2019, and this has helped him.

The ADHD, OCD and autism triad is finally complete!

🌪