Demi,

I too had OCD since I was about 8 years old. I still have it now. I check locks and doors, and stoves more than once. I have a phobia of fires and thieft. Many times things were stolden from me so that doesn't help with th OCD! Also I check things that I write for fear its not correct. The more important it is, the more I stress over checking it. Its so draining and time consuming.

How I wish I could get rid of it. I would feel so much more free if I could. I just wanted to let you know that depression makes it far worse. I remembered that when I was single the loneliness would make me check everything more than once for hours. Now that I have a wonderful and sweet fiance' in my life who took care of me when I was very ill, the OCD would last a few minutes.he is the only good thing in my life right now.

Also keeping busy with a purpose in life always made OCD less magnified. This forum is a great purpose if I can prevent people from suffering with my information!

Have you heard of cognitive therapy? This works for me. To avoid checking things over and over again, I make a concious effort to remember that I already checked something and than this keeps me from checking it again. I'll only check it 1-3 times only.

I use to have to do everything in 2s or else I thought something bad was going to happen to me. I don't do it much anymore because I tell myself that it is all in my head.

I hope this helps you knowing how draining this can be. If you try some of the cognitive theraphy, let me know if it works!

Good luck!