Tag Archives: obsessive-compulsives get one another

nOCD, an ERP App/Hero

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If you’ve spent time around this blog, you know that I wrestled my life and freedom back from the clutches of obsessive-compulsive disorder in 2008. (Read more about my story at jackieleasommers.com/OCD).

From the onset of my symptoms to my diagnosis: 15 years.
From my diagnosis to appropriate treatment (ERP): 5 years.
From treatment to freedom: 12 weeks. (<–Read that again please.)

Exposure and response prevention (ERP) therapy is powerful, friends.

On average, it takes OCD sufferers 14-17 years to get the correct diagnosis and treatment. This is not okay. 

So many OCD sufferers cannot afford treatment. In some countries, ERP therapy is simply not available. In fact, in some countries, the stigma associated with having a brain disorder like OCD is so strong that sufferers would not dare admit to needing help. This is not okay. 

The creators of the nOCD app felt the same way. One contacted me and said, “Our goal is to reduce the time it takes for people with OCD to get effective treatment (from decades to minutes).” He said, “One thing advocacy has shown me is the need for OCD treatment in other countries! There are people in Bangladesh, India, etc that have literally nobody! My team is actually building a 24/7 support community within nOCD to combat this issue.”

The app is FREE and, I-hope-I-hope-I-hope, going to change the world.

Some of the very best things about this app:

nocd.jpg

Right now it’s available for iPhones, but this fall, the Android version will come out. Please check it out here. And be sure to tell me what you think!

xoxo Jackie

OCD shared experiences

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Last Wednesday, I was interviewed about my OCD in front of a group of around 100 students at the college where I work.  It was such a blessing to be able to share with them.  We talked about wanting to keep OCD a secret, about how OCD affected my relationships, about cognitive-behavioral therapy, about how long it took for me to find relief.

Afterward, I had a small group of students who hung around to ask questions and to connect with me.  One girl was crying, telling me her older sister had OCD and she hoped that her sister could “come as far” as I had.  Another told me that she had never had the chance to meet someone who struggled the same way as she did.  Another asked some great, probing questions about CBT.  Two days later, I had a mom email me and tell me that her daughter had come to my chapel talk and told her how great it was to hear from someone else who’d been diagnosed with scrupolosity.  I’ve scheduled or am scheduling several coffee dates with these newfound obsessive-compulsive friends.

The mom wrote:
I could tell it meant a lot to her the other night to hear that someone she knows, and is successful and enjoying her career, and has remained faithful amidst all the doubts scrupulosity brings is living an abundant life.  You are the first person she’s met that truly struggles as she does; someone who understands better than any councelor or psychologist or psychiatrist  OR MOM WHO HAD READ EVERY BOOK SHE CAN GET HER HANDS ON TO HELP HER DAUGHTER.

It’s sad, but it’s also true.  No one really gets an obsessive-compulsive like another obsessive-compulsive.  I am so grateful for every opportunity I have to connect with someone else who GETS IT.  We haved lived a nightmare together– while others only hear about it second-hand.  OCs truly share a unique experience of pain, struggle, and attack.

I hope that these new OCs I’ve connected with will also one day share my story of victory.  Please Jesus.