A “loop of thought that you cannot break” is how 28-year-old David Quinn describes the obsessive thoughts he battles with on a regular basis.
Quinn, a journalist from Clonsilla in Dublin, believes he had the disorder from a very young age but was diagnosed with OCD when he was 12 when his obsessive thoughts and compulsive behaviours began to become a big problem. At the time he displayed typical OCD symptoms – constant hand washing, checking behaviours and irrational fears that something bad was going to happen to a friend or family member.
Touching something while outdoors would prompt the compulsion to wash his hands. The simple action of walking upstairs became an ordeal because of a crippling fear of tripping and hurting himself.
It was a very “distressing time in my life”, he recalls.
“I didn’t know what was happening to me. I didn’t know whether these feelings were normal and the repeated actions were becoming very time consuming.”
Once diagnosed, Quinn began taking medication and attending a consultant psychiatrist on a regular basis. Later he did a course of cognitive behaviour therapy where, he says, he learned to take control and reassure himself that the obsessive thoughts were irrational.
Now, 16 years on from diagnosis, Quinn says he has OCD “under control” and is able to lead a normal life.
“I don’t talk about it much and try to be as normal as I can,” he says.
Life with OCD, however, is “a long road” and Quinn’s symptoms have changed and new ones have emerged. He is keen to point out that OCD is much more common than people think and it can affect ordinary individuals.
People’s perceptions of the disorder are changing for the better, he says.
“Attitudes are changing towards the whole area of mental health. More and more people are realising that it could so easily happen to them.”