I was not diagnosed with Obsessive-Compulsive disorder until I began therapy during treatment for my drug addiction. After careful observation and consideration, my therapist came to the conclusion that I most likely have been suffering from OCD for the better part of my life. As a result, I was most likely attempting to self-medicate the symptoms of my OCD with substances, eventually leading to my drug addiction. It is not uncommon for addicts to have co-occurring disorders that helped fuel their drug or alcohol addictions, and because of this, I am extremely passionate about spreading awareness pertaining to mental health and addiction.

My mental illness feels like I'm in the midst of a giant, cluttered, shrub. I feel trapped, I struggle to move, and I am almost constantly terrified. Even though I have a mental health condition, none of the labels make sense to me perfectly. I used to think that illness was treated with a straightforward approach, you get ill, then diagnosed, then treated, and then better. I am now realising that my illness—and no illness—is that linear and predictable.

Today, I am sad. Don't get me wrong, I will laugh. I will function. I will go through the motions of my life. I know that tomorrow will be better. If not, the next day will. But for today, for right now, I am sad.

The Story:

A lot of times, you hear people with medical or mental health conditions "disown" their diagnoses. They refrain from saying "my cancer", or, "my anxiety"—and for good reason. It has been shown that by separating yourself from your illness, you don't take on the negative attributes; you are not your illness.

I was diagnosed with ADHD several years ago... but it turns out that almost everything I have been struggling with is ADHD related.

Getting a diagnosis of a disability can be devastating news. There usually are overwhelming emotions of shock, disbelief, anxiety, fear, and despair.

Anxiety is by far the most common mental health issue affecting young people today (not to say that older people don't get anxious). Of course, there are varying degrees of anxiety; for some people medication truly is a necessity, but for most of us anxiety can be managed with a variety of coping mechanisms. The trick is finding healthy mechanisms that work for you.

I am an atheist. I hold to no gods, no faith, no religion. I don’t have a problem with people finding faith comforting, but I don’t believe in proselytizing and I think that “mission trips” are just a fancy way to say “colonialism.” However, a couple of years ago, I had a friend join The Satanic Temple, and because I try to take an active interest in the lives of my friends, I looked it up. And what I found there, was the Seven Tenets, that are the fundamental base to The Satanic Temple. They resonated with me, and I read more and wrote them out; and over the last two years, have applied them to my life, and my therapist and I agree for once that they have helped me. So without pretense or expectation, I present to you the Seven Tenets, and how I have applied them to my life to aid in my constant process of tweaking my outlook to improve my mental health.

I have OCD, and it's a thing that I struggle with daily. It is a byproduct of another disorder, but that doesn't make its teeth any less sharp. I wanted today to talk about some of the things that I obsess about, and how they affect my daily life, and how I manage them using coping mechanisms, distractions, and behavior modification tactics.

Lately, I have been experiencing these mental blocks.