Helping Georgia get help for severe OCD

Hi, my name is Georgia Jose. I am 28 years old and am currently suffering with severe contamination and checking OCD. I live in Newport and was working for Cardiff Women's Aid until I was unable to continue working and went off sick in May 2021 due to the decline in my mental health.

I believe my OCD began to develop in 2014, and only recently got diagnosed this June 2021 since it has spiralled out of control.

I sought support from the Primary Care mental health team in Newport in 2018 but unfortunately the interventions offered did not help improve my OCD. Due to certain life events and the lockdowns which meant I was living alone and working from home, the OCD continued to get worse.

I sought support from a crisis line and was told to contact my GP in April 2021 for a referral to be made to the Community Mental Health Team due to the seriousness of my symptoms and suicidal ideation. I was assessed by the CMHT in June 2021 and was told that I would have to wait 2 years for Psychological support due to huge demand for this service. To bridge this gap I was told I would be supported within 2/3 months by an Occupational health therapist. Time passed and my compulsions took over my whole day resulting in me being paralysed with intrusive thoughts and being unable to complete simple tasks such as taking out rubbish or do the washing up without hours of planning.

The contamination theme truly set in after using some drain unclogger in my shower which caused a domino effect in my mind to protect other areas of the flat from potential contamination. This led to hours of cleaning, being unable to get rid of rubbish, covering belongings in tissue and putting everything in plastic bags, as well as hours of showering and washing my hands in a ritualistic manner.

I needed constant reassurance throughout the day from family and friends which caused them extreme concern and distress.

Things finally hit a crisis point when I completely cut myself off from family and friends due to my contamination fears making it impossible to use my iPhone or laptop. A friend called the police due to concerns for my life.

Then my mother spent days pleading with the CMHT to reassess me due to my deteriorating state of mind. Finally I was assessed at Gold Tops again and the Crisis Team became involved.

I had to voluntarily agree to go into hospital as I had become suicidal because I felt so out of options with the lack of professional psychological support. I agreed to go onto an acute psychiatric ward to avoid the risk of being sectioned and losing all control of my life. I was assessed on this ward and it was decided it was inappropriate for me to be placed their due to the nature of my illness. I spent one very scary night there and was transferred onto the Shared Lives Project.

I spent a month within this project. This is a community based project where a carer opens up their home for someone coming out of hospital. Unfortunately, both myself and the Shared Lives Carer received little support from the services expected to provide the much needed support. He alone pulled me up from the bottom! The only treatment the Psychiatrist and Crisis team could offer me was medication which I felt extremely distressed about as the Sertraline which I had been prescribed since April 2021 had only worsened my intrusive thoughts and compulsive behaviours. We were both extremely let down. When I finally received support from an occupational health therapist 2 weeks ago they told me they didn't know anything about OCD nor had they worked with someone with OCD.

Most people think that having OCD means someone is a bit fussy or likes things symmetrical but that is not the same as the disorder which has prevented me from working, living independently and socialising like a normal person.

The purpose of this fundraiser is to help pay for a private treatment programme at a clinic in Taunton which specialises in intensive 1 to 1 support. My family has helped me financially in other ways due to being unable to work and being too poorly to access the benefit system as I have struggled to maintain the communications required by the process.

I want to be able to get back on track smoothly without the backlog of debts caused by my illness.

I can then get back into employment in the Mental Health professions which ironically has let me down so badly.

Many thanks for taking the time to read my story.

Georgia Jose