I live with OCD.  To keep details about me brief I think the key things you need to know might be:

• I am well and truly over half a century old and have lived with this bully for at least 25 years!
• I have one married son* who has given me two gorgeous grandchildren* (one boy and one girl) with his spouse*.
• I have one married daughter* and her spouse*.
• I have a brother* that sadly passed away in 2016 when he was in his prime leaving his bereft spouse* and my niece* and nephew*.
• I have a mother*.
• I have a partner*.

* I am so tempted to type positive and loving adjectives next to each of the important people in my life listed above, but it is hard to sufficiently convey my feelings for them in words – all I know is that these are the ‘constants’ in my life and they all know how I wouldn’t cope without any one of them.  Other material things can come and go, but my constants are there until the big bad inevitable takes one of us, as it did with my big, strong, kind, caring, thoughtful, loyal, wonderful, rock of a brother.

Talking of my partner … he regularly illustrates as a way of relaxing, so when I asked him to produce a simple representation of me, he came up with this, which I can only recognise from my desire for lipstick, earrings and my love of daisies.  What I’d give to have a neck that slim with no sign of a double-chin.

For those of you who like more detail, I do live in a pretty village in central England, I have no pets, I don’t eat enough healthy food, I like to socialise with friends over a glass of wine, I love art, refurbishing furniture, flowers, interior floofing, Devon, bread and chocolate.

On a more serious and relevant point, many people say “I suffer with OCD” which is a truthful way to describe life with this – suffering.  However I decided a few years ago to live within the restraints of OCD as best I could and not fight with it, because it is a bully that is stronger than me.

I’ve read a great deal about why I might have this condition, and how I can try to minimise or eradicate it but the one fantastic conclusion I eventually arrived at was that bullies don’t like being exposed!  Talk about bullies and they tend to shy away, and that is how I have found improvements with my OCD traits – instead of keeping quiet about how I was being intimidated, I started to say the words that I was ashamed of, like contamination – there and then it has been weakened and doesn’t have the same strength to bully me.

Sharing with you this OCD Exposed blog and book will route out all the OCD bullies I live with to name and shame them, with the aim of increasing awareness and encouraging others to do the same.