my perspective is that if you can figure out what your triggers are, and you can figure out how to either minimize how often you are exposed to them or how severely you react to them, you can totally self manage without meds or even counseling. this of course is not a professional opinion, just a personal experience. my biggest ways ocd manifests are clutter, wordiness, & sometimes insecurity like wanting more reassurance that whomever i'm dating still likes me than someone without ocd might need. but for example some of my biggest phobias--the things that make me actually have panic attacks--those are actually as much ptsd as ocd. for example, i absolutely just can not and will not drink from a beverage i've had in a room where there are people i don't know, if i have walked away from the beverage or even not had my eye or hand on it. i would spend the whole rest of the day wondering if i was going to die or pass out and be raped. why? because of things that have actually happened in reality. like i had an exboyfriend who had to give cpr to a girl because she got so much GHB put in her beer without her knowledge and consent. and like just last saturday at the hawthorne theatre in portland my best friend was dosed with GHB in her gin & tonic and passed out and got molested. things really do happen....so i'm way phobic.....so i just avoid these situations altogether. i only drink beverages when alone or only around people i know and trust, and/or, if i have to drink something in public, i hold on to it hypervigilantly with an eye on it. to not do so would risk both someone actually hurting me (unlikely, but really does happen to people), and / or me freaking out paranoid wondering if anyone did (likely, but totally avoidable by avoiding the trigger situation).
does that make sense?
