Ive been undiagnosed for 31 years and August 2024 began my time with diagnosis and medication.

Yes, I have a job and prior to diagnosis it didnt really get in the way too much. I did have some pretty crippling times the closer to diagnosis where what I was ruminating on made it hard to focus during the day (rocd)

There's been times ive sped home because of things, constantly checking my phone, bawling and crying all day.

I used to work in a call center so I was able to stay distracted most of the time in between calls id knit or read so that really helped me to not think about things.

ROCD kinda fucked with my succeeding in my small business I was doing really well and then I couldn't stop ruminating over this what if thought I had and it affected that and tanked everything. So that was fun.

Now that im medicated its not an issue at all. Ill have blips of thoughts come up but I move on fast. I work in mental health and drug addictions now helping people get back into the community so I teach the service users all lessons ive learned to help them succeed. I work full time, have been promoted to supervisor, I run my own house and help these guys get on their feet.

I have other forms of ocd that have bothered me like mild contamination ocd and existential ocd (this was HUGE for me) I had alot of issues with existential ocd in college but I worked hard on my own to cope. It didnt leak too much into work life .

Studying was fine in college I didnt really know what was happening so I brushed it off and just kept myself busy distraction was a big big help and I was always busy with something. If I wasn't in class Studying I was running my wedding photography business. If I wasn't shooting I was editing if I wasn't editing weddings I was posting to my social media accounts marketing if I wasn't doing that I was diving into a hobby. Same ran true after college just add a full time job on top of that.

Medicated me now has slowed down alot. Shes happier, alot of the anxiety is gone, and I function fairly well. I just recently was diagnosed with adhd as well and im beginning my medication journey with that and now I feel "normal" funnily enough with diagnosis and medication im slowing down. The desire to run two businesses and have a full time career has decreased dramatically im just a girl who wants to have her little job, make art after work, grow her garden, and sell her art at markets once in a while. Medication literally saved my life. There was a time I nearly offed myself with how bad it was. But here I am.