By Becca

Hi, it’s me again!

Won’t be long now guys – only a few weeks left ‘til the best week of the year…  it’s Christmas and New Year’s Eve soon! Yay!

Now I do have a issue with this time of year – I don’t get why we have to have them both in the same week! I understand that Christmas has to be in December (otherwise all those Christmas cards with snow on them would look a bit daft), but why does New Years Eve have to be in December too? I think that the members of OCD UK should get together and petition for New Year’s to be moved to June and spread things out a little.

That aside, I can’t wait for Christmas. I can’t wait to give out all my presents and see peoples faces fill with joy, I cant wait to sit around a huge table with my loved ones and share a fantastic meal with them, and most of all I cant wait to see a different side to the world. For one day a year most people show their better side and are more interested in having a fantastic day with their loved ones than causing pain and suffering.

Away from Christmas, I’ve had enough of Richard Hammond; he fails to see what’s best for him… so it pains me to say I’m moving on. He will always have a place in my heart but with a new year upon us, it’s time for me to set a new goal… and that goal is Gino D’Acampo, not only does he is he as good looking as Richard Hammond, but he has the most amazing voice and, most importantly… he can cook. I’m sure this one will be a success.

See you later alligator
Becca
Xxx

P.S. Number of times I’ve said I love you today:17
P.P.S Number of new outfits I need for Christmas and new year: 13

Kylie Cloke

By Kylie Cloke, Chair of OCD-UK

As we head towards the end of 2009, and into 2010 – I wanted to take a moment to reflect back on the past year and look forward to the upcoming one.

OCD-UK has gone from strength to strength during 2009, and I am extremely proud to be part of a team that has continued to pilot innovative new ideas and projects to further raise the awareness of OCD amongst the general public, the health professionals and within the media, a team that provides help, guidance and support to those affected by this debilitating illness, and a team that continues to campaign for improved access to quality care and treatment for those affected by OCD. As we head into 2010, I will be leading the team to continue with our core missions and to pilot even more innovative new ideas.

I would like to take this moment to thank a numerous amount of people – far too many people to list individually!! Firstly, and it goes without saying, that a huge thank you needs to go to Ashley. Without his hard work, passion and determination, OCD-UK would not exist, and would not be the fantastic charity that it is. I am sure some could argue that he is just doing his job – but I think we all know it goes much further than that.  

I would like to thank Maria Bavetta – Chair of OCD-UK until October 2009. Her professionalism and devotion to OCD-UK has been immense, and she had led the team to wonderful new heights – I aim to follow in her footsteps, and continue with the hard work that she started.

Next, I would like to thank all our volunteers who give up their time freely for the benefit of the charity. From our Administrators and Moderators , who offer support and guidance, and ensure our forums run as smoothly as possible to our Proof Readers who ensure our magazines and literature reads correctly, to our E-Mail Support team who answer queries and questions sent to OCD-UK, to our Cheer Squad who stand for hours supporting our runners across the country. The list of volunteers is truly endless, but without each and every one of them – our Charity would not run as effectively as it does.

I would like  to thank our fundraisers. Whether it be a coffee morning, or running a 26 mile marathon around the streets of London – the funds they raise for us is greatly needed to ensure our financial stability, and to allow us to lead further forward.

And last but by no means least, to all of you – our members. Our community is amazing!! There is always someone around on the forums to offer help, understanding and support when needed – to help someone who wants to understand more about the diagnosis they have received, to help individuals who are undergoing treatment and just needs to rant and rave, and to be a listening ear for those that are struggling. From personal experience, I know that I wouldn’t be where I am now without the charity and forums – and I am sure the same can be said for many. Thank you for spending your free time to offer help and support to others, for building up a safe community that allows those affected by OCD the chance to talk without fear of judgement and for donating your membership money to ensure financial stability for OCD-UK.

With just a week of 2009 left, I do hope that you have some happy memories of 2009. For those of you that have overcome OCD during 2009, I wish that 2010 remains an OCD free time for you. For those of you that have made progress with your battle against OCD, I hope 2010 continues to provide more progresses, and for those that have found 2009 a hard year, I hope that 2010 brings some relief. Wherever we are with our individual battles against OCD, OCD-UK will continue to offer help, support and guidance during the upcoming year.

I would like to wish you all a Happy Holiday and a Prosperous New Year.

Kylie
Xxx

By Ashley Fulwood

Today is Christmas Eve and much of my day as been spent talking to the police following another attempt to defraud our charity bank account! Yep, you are reading me right! Earlier in the Summer we found two mysterious amounts had been taken from our bank account, and then this week our bank wrote to us to decline the setting up of a Standing Order from our account because it did not quite meet with the instruction we had given our bank for our account. It turns out that someone was trying to setup a Standing Order from our account for £96 weekly for three weeks over Christmas, just small amounts which would not get noticed during the Christmas period with statement delays etc.

Can you believe that someone would actually try and steal from a charity? It’s certainly making me less full of Christmas joy and glee I can tell you. Humbug anyone?
Thankfully our bank protects us and on each of the three occasions that it has happened we have been refunded our money that you our members have worked so hard to donate. This in itself is a problem because the Police refuse to investigate on our instruction because we have not lost out, the bank have. The bank doesn’t seem to care because it is such a small amount. However, what they do not appreciate is that on each occasion it does cost our charity time and money in phone calls, and at least a couple of hours of my time is spent writing reports, talking to the banks and police which could be better spent helping our community or developing the charity.

We are also the victim of fraud in another unusual way too, often criminals who have stolen bank or card details will make small donations of £5-£10 to charities to test the card works before they then go on to spend bigger. Our own charity debit card was used to make a £10 donation to Oxfam in the Summer and then we have also received small donations from people which later turn out to be not genuine. This then leads to the credit card company trying to take the money back of us, and often our online transaction provider, RBS Worldpay then try and charge us £10 admin fee called a Chargeback fee. Thankfully that situation has only happened twice, but again it shows that fraudsters are really using Charities for their own means.

 The downside of this is that now if OCD-UK receive an unusual donation I have to email the donater just to check it is genuine, how sad is that?  (please don’t let that put you off donating though, we really do need your support), and you can always email us when you donate to let us know, in fact I would love to hear from you anyway if you are kind enough to donate, it gives me the opportunity to thank you much more personally.

At the end of the day OCD-UK is protected by the bank, but what it means is I have to check our statements on a weekly basis, so it simply adds additional workload to my time, so I guess it does cost the charity in that respect.

This is just one of the many unusual jobs that I have to deal with here at OCD-UK towers on a regular basis.

I am now running out of Humbugs.. Christmas seasonal joy to one and all? Pah,  not going to let the low life *Bleep Bleep* steal my Christmas joy too… so wishing all the charities friends and supports a very Happy Christmas and I look forward to working with you all in 2010.

From a nearly Scrooge like Ashley.

We missed our own set deadline for our Christmas 2009 magazine, in fact the fantastic Christmas cover I designed is now redundant L Oh well, New Year theme for the cover then J

Still we have done well, we have already rolled out three jam packed magazines in 2009, and this will be the 4^th produced in 2009 (distributed in early 2010 though).

Our Christmas magazine service disrupted due to extreme snow… It’s snow joke! Well actually it is, but hey, everything else in this country grinds to a halt with a bit of snow, so we might as well follow the example and blame it on the snow!

The actual truth is that at OCD-UK we do not have the luxury of throwing money at everything so have to make the best use of our limited resources, for that reason we have kept all design in-house to keep the costs down. In fact I have had to learn both Quark and Adobe In-Design to be able to put our magazines together over the last couple of years! This means that the design of the content I have to slot in between other jobs, and sometimes, like now an influx of demand for my time means something hits the back burner for a few days, and the magazine is it! The other problem is that we simply have so much content, trying to fit 38 pages into 20 pages is proving a tad difficult, still that’s a nice problem to have. Charlotte has done a great job helping with the written content preparing it all ready for design.

OCD does not stop for Christmas, so neither will I and I will be working on the magazine over Christmas and hope to send it to print the first working week of January, with then a 10 day turnaround for printing and dispatch to you guys.

I hope you will think it is worth the wait, because it will be and I hope the New Year magazine will be a great start to 2010 for our members.

Whatever you’re doing over the holiday season, have a great one and be kind to yourself J

Ashley

P.S. Any designers reading this willing to donate a dozen hours every 2 or 3 months to take over the artwork of the magazine from me would be most welcome?

By Leigh Jackson

Our Children's OCD guide created by Leigh

Hi my name is Leigh and I’m the designer and illustrator responsible for Jolly and Grump, as well as the Parent and Teenager guides. I have been suffering with OCD for most of my life and it is something that I have had to accept is going to be with me for sometime yet. My own experience, like most peoples, is from a very early age been regarded as someone who worries too much. This then progressed onto a fear of dirt and smelling bad when trying to impress the girls, which resulted in showering for hours on end.

I still suffer different types of ‘ticks’ but the only one that has stuck most firmly is locking doors. If I was to give any piece of advice at this point, it would be that if you are being controlled to a point where your life is unbearable, then take control. For me, I was sick of washing my hands over and over again, sick of showering obsessively, and so I said to myself, this must stop. What would be the worst that could happen. The trick was to see through the OCD. To try and get some perspective and proportionate the worries.

My OCD still tries to take the upper hand and I have only just realised to what extent – not until I read the stories on the OCD-UK website. The biggest battle ground is happiness, it will not let me be happy. You wouldn’t usually notice. On the outside I’m the cheeky Geordie Northern Monkey, while on the inside, I’m scared of being happy. My OCD is saying ‘just you wait, something really bad will happen’.

A good analogy would be learning to swim. I can’t speak for other OCD suffers but in life I feel like I am always holding onto the side of the pool, just incase. What I have to do is learn to let go and what will be will be. Being a perfectionist means that sometimes it takes me a while to let go.

I started working with OCD-UK because I wanted to utilise the skills I had to help others and produce some interesting work outside of my employment. I love to illustrate and when the chance came up to design a children’s booklet, the ideas just flowed. Jolly and Grump were born, the feedback I received was amazing and still remains one of my number one achievements.

Now the plug, if your interested in any of my work then please see my web site link below
http://jacksonleigh.carbonmade.com

A sample of Leigh's work

Regards, Leigh

By Ashley Fulwood.

Ashley

Morning Bloggies,

One of the purposes of this blog is to allow the OCD-UK team to talk a little about the work that we do, often behind the scenes. It is fair to say that a fair chunk of my work is long, time consuming repetitive admin related paperwork, but now and then something drops in my inbox that takes me away from that and allows me to get involved in projects that I know will make a real difference.

There are many books about OCD, some of which we list on our website, some are better than others but very few give a real insight into what OCD is and give a non-sufferer an understanding and explanation of the illness. I actually receive at least one or two books on OCD or Anxiety each month, and most gather dust until I get chance to read them. I had long been an admirer of the book Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder (The Facts) by Stanley Rachman and Padmal de Silva. So when Oxford University Press got in touch with me to review and potentially write a foreword for the new edition of the book I jumped at the chance, and put that straight at the top of my reading list.

The book was even better than it’s predecessors, so of course I did not hesitate to offer the publishers a foreword. I hope that the charities endorsement will encourage others to read the book, and in doing so will hopefully help them gain a better understanding of OCD, which in turn will help them challenge their OCD.

The new edition of the book was published in March this year, so rather than write a review of the book I thought I would blog my foreword from the book. I am not one for waffling on (well not always, lol), the foreword is pretty short but I think it sufficiently says everything any OCD sufferer will need to know about this book.

– Book Foreword –

Exactly 7 years ago, in January 2002, I was diagnosed with an illness that left me bewildered, confused and feeling as if I was the only person in the world that was suffering from it: This illness was Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder.

Over the following months I read many books about Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder, and I searched for an understanding that I was unable to find elsewhere. It was only when I was recommended an earlier version of this publication did I discover a book that truly allowed me to understand Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder.

So when I was offered the opportunity and privilege of writing a foreword for this new edition of Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder: The Facts I jumped at the chance. I believe that this book will lead others affected by OCD to a better understanding of what they’re dealing with and to a much greater chance of recovery.

Over the years there have been many books written on the subject of this still frequently misunderstood, debilitating illness, yet none have remained so balanced and unbiased or managed to pack so much evidence based content in such a structured way as this book does. This latest edition is no exception and continues to build on its predecessors by offering even clearer laid out content.

One of OCD-UK’s key objectives is to empower sufferers to make positive steps towards recovery and Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder: The Facts continues to be a vital tool in helping our charity towards that goal.

Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder: The Facts offers the reader a clear and concise guide to understanding Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder by simply presenting the facts.

Perhaps the essential compliment I can pay this book is that it is truly the definitive guide to understanding Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder. It will always be the first book on my suggested list of reading material for health professionals, sufferers, and carers alike.

Ashley Fulwood
January 2009

– End of foreword –

I also passed a copy of the book to my colleague Catherine for her input. Catherine is a lady I respect very much, she is a very wise lady and when she talks, I listen. She usually calls things spot on, so I was interested to see her feedback. She wrote her review of the book for our magazine, Compulsive Reading. The full review can be read in the next edition of the magazine, but here is a little taster…

Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder (The Facts)

– Catherine’s Review –

This small, but information-packed book is a pleasure to read and the OCD sufferer will find many points in it with which they can identify. It blends theory with facts and case studies in a balanced way. Specifically there are a number of aspects of the book which I would like to highlight:

I had not previously considered the Latin meaning of the term obsession, which is ‘obsidere’, to be besieged, and to me this sums up the intense manner in which ones mind can feel totally under siege from the obsessive or intrusive thoughts. The authors project the intensity of obsessive thoughts with great consideration and appear to empathise with the sense of repulsion and distress that they bring to the sufferer.

– Review End – Read more in the next copy of our magazine –

Anyway, that’s it from me. I hope you found this a little helpful, the book is well worth a read. You can get a copy of this book direct from OCD-UK here.

Keep fighting guys!
Ashley.

By Peter Jupp.

Peter running so fast he blurred our support teams pics!

A huge thank you must be passed to all at OCD UK for kindly offering me the opportunity to run for them in the 2009 Flora London Marathon. My story begins at the beginning of 2008 when I was diagnosed with OCD. The OCD I was experiencing was negative thinking patterns and really horrid intrusive thoughts. This in the end led me to a very dark depressing time where I found professional help and then found OCD UK. As I got better through CBT and a continual re-education of my thinking patterns, I wanted to give something back to focus my mind and a new start. I ran the London Marathon in 2005 and I wanted to do it again for OCD UK. I contacted Ashley Fulwood and from there I had to respond to a letter in why I should be running for OCD. My reason was not just personal but wanting to get some attention from the general public on this debilitating illness and increase awareness. Finally I got the letter from Ashley to confirm I got my place – Great news! The run up to the Marathon was hectic and the training at times gruesome, especially the long Sunday runs which could get pretty lonely. Those long runs certainly gave me a lot of thinking time, but I constantly had the focus of the London Marathon in my mind. The pain and suffering I had endured during my long runs was nothing compared to what I was going through with OCD and depression. I kept going moving forward.

Friends at work kindly sponsored me and it was great telling them about a charity they had never heard of. Having shared with them my challenges with OCD they were shocked but also interested to find out more. The awareness campaign was working!!

I trained 4 times a week for the run and wanted a time around 4 hours, that was the goal. As the training runs got longer the time seemed to just fly and before I knew it the big day was only a few weeks away. I indulged in lots of pasta in the run up and also Lucozade hoping I would not hit that wall which I experienced in 2005 – ouch! Running was a great release from the day to day pressures of life and increasing my fitness levels increased the positive feeling of overcoming my OCD problems.

The reality of the run only kicked in when I collected my number on the Friday before and seeing all the crowds and sponsors at the Exhibition Centre at Excel. I was nervous but also excited as the time was nearly here to hit those London streets. More carbo loading and finally Sunday was here. I had great support from my wife and close family members and that added to my will power to do this run. The weather was not ideal for running, it was warm and by mid way through the run it was cooking!! Great for the spectators but not for the runners who were pounding these streets. Suddenly we were off! And I loved being around all these different people and costumes, the first 7 miles flew and I was on track and feeling good, I was so confident I stepped my pace up and them boom! My legs just gave in around 15 miles, it was like all the energy had been drained from me……what was I going to do!??!! I kept going and shuffled my way through to 18 miles where the pain was hitting me hard…..it was the wall! Why oh why did I agree to his……I then thought of the pain of the OCD problems I was overcoming and it gave me some more drive, I did not want to let down the charity or my sponsors. I was going to do it no matter what.

Leading up to the last mile I could see light at the end of the tunnel and I was nearly there my efforts were worth it, Buckingham Palace was in sight and so was the finish line……..600 yards…….400 yards…..200 yards…..a sprint finish for the cameras and I was home!! The relief was immediate and the odd tear confirmed the emotion was drained from me in what was a tough 4hours 37 minutes – I had done it.

That’s my story and in a bizarre way that Marathon day can be compared to being treated for my OCD, a long haul that has many hurdles that can be overcome and will lead you to that finish line. Those little battles can be won and the effort and commitment demonstrated through the treatment makes you feel like a real achiever as you beat those demons of intrusive thoughts. Remember they are only thoughts and accepting them and the pain and living in their space will get you to that recovery point.

Peter Jupp

Age 32

By Vanessa Rogers.

Vanessa Rogers

My name is Vanessa Rogers and I am the Vice Chair of OCD-UK. My role in the organisation is to grow the Family Friends and Carers part of the charity because, well, WE MATTER TOO – and how! Nobody has really addressed that issue yet and I think we feel sorely neglected and rightly so…. I am a mum to a beloved daughter who has suffered very very severe OCD for many years so I know what damage this condition can do to those close to sufferers who have to live ‘in their world’ – and try to take them out of it! How hard that is! How painful and frustrating it is to watch our loved one in such mental anguish and how helpless do we feel? Sometimes it is like battering our heads against a brick wall.

But help is at hand. But the hard part is trying to reach others like me who are dealing with their loved ones with OCD on a day-to-day basis and just don’t know where to turn for some support and guidance – even just to know that they are not alone. Well, take note of this – OCD-UK has organised a FAMILY FRIENDS AND CARERS CONFERENCE to be held on July 25th this year in Reading (details of venue, etc. on OCD-UK website) where we have laid on a day of information and guidance from experts who can help us help our loved ones and to help us help ourselves. There are workshops where we can discuss the various different issues we have to face and find out how we can deal with them in the best possible way. And the best thing of all is that we can meet and help each other. Because OCD is such a secret illness, we become ourselves to feel so isolated and alone locked in a bitter struggle with this bully that is taking over our precious child, husband, wife, parent, friend. But let’s start to confront these issues and deal with OUR side of things because we CAN make a difference and maybe we will how learn to make our lives easier by dealing with this bully and most of all, perhaps make a difference to the lives of those suffering in our midst.

So – if you are reading this and feel that the person/s in your life most close to you who have to confront your suffering on a day-to-day basis may gain some comfort from a conference such as this, please please pass on this information. And why not come along too? Maybe together we can all learn more in our struggle to overcome this terrible torment that is OCD.

Vanessa

By Kathryn Dwyer.

Kathryn

Hi everyone

I’m Kitty and as well as being a member of OCD-UK I also have the honour of editing the charity’s magazine ‘Compulsive Reading’.

I was finally diagnosed with OCD in 2005, after spending 20 years of my life suffering with it and not knowing what it was. My OCD developed from something called Emetophobia (fear of vomiting) which makes me carry out all sorts of checking and cleaning rituals – but more than anything terribly affects my relationship with food. I’m currently on the rather unwell side of things again, but hoping for better things soon, as I’m going to be hitting the age of 30 this year and feel like I need to turn things around so that I don’t waste any more of my life to this illness. I feel that the charity is doing a very important job in raising awareness of this illness, as it is a condition that is very much misunderstood, often joked about and taken the Michael out of by people who really don’t understand what it is like to suffer in the way we do.

Previous to working with OCD-UK, I was an English Teacher at a local college, and have also worked in very many other jobs including being a librarian (which I loved and want to go back to again at some stage), and for a few years I worked as a Secretary and PA in various jobs within my local council. At the moment I am unable to work full time because of my OCD and also another ongoing health issue, but I hope that is going to change very soon, because I want to do something useful with my life. To keep myself occupied, as well as my editing job, I am currently enrolled with the Open University and hoping to study towards a History degree – though this is going to be a long process taken over the next few years. I am currently studying the Foundation Course in the Arts that they run, which is giving me an insight into a very many varied topics – learning about Plato one week then switching to Pugin is a bit of a struggle, but worth it as it helps keep my brain in check.

My real passions in life (as well as helping to raise awareness of OCD!) are family history and genealogy, history in general and writing. In an ideal world I’d be making my fortune from writing lots of bestselling novels (in my head, I’ve already installed myself in a lovely little stone cottage, with a rambling rose garden, preferably somewhere in the Lake District. Nice office somewhere within the house to work in, overlooking Grasmere and the surrounding fells…oops…sorry, getting carried away), and I’ve indeed been working on writing one for some time, but the pace is slow and the added problem of my OCD making me check everything countless times makes it a sometimes disheartening process. However, the editing job on the magazine affords me the opportunity to write articles of my own and see them in print. It also means I get to work with lots of other people from our forums and encourage them to write articles for me too.

I hope that I can carry on with my role within the charity for a long time to come and look forward to working with everyone very much.

With love and best wishes to you all.

Kitty

By Catherine Mills.

Hiya,

Catherine

I’m Catherine and have been a trustee with OCD-UK for nearly two years. I have suffered from OCD since my early teens and also suffer from Tourette Syndrome and other related conditions. Professionally, my background is general nursing and managing services for people with learning disabilities, although due to my own difficulties I have not worked in this capacity for about 10 years now. However, I am very involved with my own mental health trust on Merseyside in my capacity as a patient/service user with the trust. For example, I lead a small research group, sit on interview panels and am chair of the Service user and Carer forum. I am a volunteer with my local Council for Voluntary Services where I undertake an administrative role. I also co-facilitate an OCD support group which meets monthly in Liverpool.

Treatment wise for my OCD I’ve been very fortunate in that I’ve had the consistency of the same psychologist and psychiatrist for some years now. Last year I was offered 12 months of out patient treatment at the Maudsley hospital in London and it was an experience I gained a lot from. Whilst my symptoms have not really improved as such I have a much greater understanding of CBT principles and am trying to implement them at home now my formal treatment at the Maudsley has come to an end. I would urge anyone who is offered treatment at the Maudsley to take it up as I do believe it has highly skilled therapists and is a centre of excellence.

When I’m not busy doing the above, I enjoy spending time with my young nephew and two little great nephews who regularly drag me along to watch the latest Pixar movie! But they’re great fun and give me a huge lift in life. I also spend time supporting my beloved Everton FC, although that can often involve more stress than enjoyment!

I feel it is a great privilege to be a trustee with OCD-UK and I take my responsibilities very seriously. OCD-UK is an organisation whose values are consistent with my own and I believe passionately in its work. Over the past two years I’ve grown to know, like and respect my fellow trustees. Quite rightly, we do not always agree on issues, but we do always discuss them in a constructive and solution-focused manner and this makes the role a pleasure to undertake.

Wishing you well

Thank you

Catherine.