I had to confront my OCD last January when my father was diagnosed with cancer. As dad’s carer I found I could no longer cope with all my rituals and obsessions and looking after him. I was getting up at 4am so I could creep downstairs to clean and due to chronic back pain, having to crawl around the lounge on my hands and knees using a dustpan and brush while dad and my husband happily slept on!
Of course when we were all up later I would do the “proper” housework for the rest of the day. They knew all along that I had a problem but if we did not talk about it we wouldn’t have to do anything about it. Something had to give as I was past breaking point so I told my doctor. Now with medication and CBT I am improving. One step forward, two steps back, but getting there.
Dad died in April and we are now decorating the house, making it more
OCD friendly and that has helped a lot. I have a really good therapist
and my medication has increased and there is light at the end of the tunnel.
I would be happy to talk about my OCD. I do not feel that a great weight
has been lifted, but by talking to others has
made the weight seem less and I am being helped to carry it. I’m
“out” and proud!
Using the way that some sufferers have used to write about their OCD in your newsletter, I am now writing about my OCD. When I am happy and confident about it I would like to send it to you, to share my story regardless of whether you use it in the newsletter or not.
In the meantime, I have enclosed three photographs that I took — I am a keen amateur photographer.
I have been a volunteer for the Gloucestershire Wildlife Rescue Centre
for 10 years and I am the chairman of this charity. Because of my disabilities
with my spine I tend to do call-outs collecting wild animals from local
vets because I can’t do major rescues, I do lots of fundraising
and because of my experience our centre manager —
Louise, who is my very best friend, lets me keep some of the animals at
home in my mini wildlife hospital. I do lots of hand-rearing our babies,
my most favourite job!
This means I get lots of opportunities to take cute photographs. When I showed Louise the two photographs I have enclosed she laughed very loudly and managed to splutter “Ooohhhhh Karen, you have even tidied up and straightened your hedgehog babies into height order!!!
click each image to enlarge.
That OCD of yours is really out of hand! ! ! ! We laughed and laughed! Then I did my “usual”- her washing-up and then severely polished her draining board!!
I said to her at the time that I must send the photographs to OCD-UK as you would understand the joke! So here they are.
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I have also enclosed my “Laughing Seal” photograph which we always look at when we need cheering up! I took this one at the Cornish Seal Sanctuary in Gweek, Cornwall. When I sent them a copy of it they put it on their website “Visitors Photo’s Page!
Karen's Hedgehogs
A woman found a hedgehog in her garden, believing she was helping she moved it over a fence into some undergrowth. The next day the woman found tiny Hoglet on the lawn where she had seen the hedgehog the day before. She then found three more and it became obvious the moved hedgehog was the baby Hoglets mum and by moving it they had prevented her helping her 3 babies.
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The woman contacted the wildlife centre for help and we realised that the tiny hoglet was not from the same litter, she was tiny. Babies should not be out of their nest especially when blind and deaf, just a few days old like this Hoglet.
We could not understand why this baby was separated from her nest and mixed with these other hoglets. The woman whose garden it was said that some council workmen were clearing leaves with a big leafblower, the wildlife centre think this baby was so tiny it was simply blown out of her nest because it weighed just 13 grammes.
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Although slightly bruised it made a speedy recovery even bossing the other larger Hoglets around to get the warmest bed!
Our advice is before clearing garden please check under hedges and leaf
stacks for baby Hogs, if possible leave an area of the garden untouched
for the wildlife.
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