(slow guitar music) (Voiceover) I had a very good
education, I went to a really nice school. A bit of a high achiever at school. I was a prefect in year 12
and school vice captain. I was very organised. I was always a very happy person,
loved going to school, 'cause I'd see my mates every day. But when I finished school, that structure was taken away from me and that's when I guess some complications
probably came up and things got a bit more difficult. The unknown probably scared me a bit in terms of, I didn't know
what tomorrow would bring. The uncertainty whether or not
I'd get into the uni course I wanted to get into. I also had a bit of a relationship
breakdown at the point, as well. I was always thinking about
the worst case scenario and I had a lot of intrusive thoughts
that started to come into my head. (electronic beat) I started cleaning my room, vacuuming the floor like
four, five times a day. Cleaning excessively. It'd take me six hours,
so that was my day gone. And then I wouldn't get
to see friends and stuff because I thought what I had
to do was more important. The compulsions were a way of
alleviating the anxiety I was feeling. It became a real problem because I guess it started taking
over from my daily life, and then it became my priority making sure my room was spotless. I guess I viewed my room as
somewhat of a masterpiece, and I would compare it to something
like Da Vinci's (laughs) Mona Lisa, which sounds really silly to say, but for me, internally,
that's what I honestly believed. When someone would sort
of come into my room, if it was my brothers or my
family member or whatever, you know, it was like, well
after I completed this task and this ritual, that someone had drawn a
moustache on my Mona Lisa and you know, jeopardise the
integrity of this beautiful masterpiece. That would just ruin everything
and I'd have to start again. So it was really consuming,
obviously, and very taxing on my existence. I would make excuses not to see
people, but you know, in reality,
I was just cleaning my room. I remember, I guess
when my parents decided that this was something that probably
needed to be dealt with, they drove me to a GP
and I had a conversation with him. I thought I was the
only person in the world that was having these things. It felt good to know that
I wasn't the only one. Certainly gave me some
perspective on things, and allowed me to
come to grips with this as something I needed to
take control of. The GP set up an appointment for me to meet with a psychiatrist. That was the beginning
of the journey, in terms of just discussing
what was going on. When I would disclose the fact that yeah, I was suffering from
OCD to people, they were just surprised
and they still are. Support of my friends
was really important, and it was always overwhelming, their reactions and responses and how compassionate
they were towards me. My first year of university, a spokesperson from headspace came
and did a presentation. I had no idea that this service
existed. A youth-friendly space, to me, was just saying that
seems just so brilliant. It's confidential, it's private, and people there actually understand what young people are going through. I think something that's really
important is to remember that you're
never alone in this journey. Like a really good place to start
would be somewhere like headspace. I guess I've come to
terms with the fact that I'll probably have this
condition my whole life, but it's just about management. Perspective has been
the biggest things for me. I look at a lot of things
now and view them as trivial, when I previously viewed
them as being high priority. I'm pretty proud of where I am now. Having people in my room, moving stuff around
and touching things. It's almost like back to where
I was before it all happened. It's a full circle. Take that first step, because you'd just be surprised
and amazed at how effective it can be. And really turn your situation around
and get you back on track.
