HAVE you casually joked about having OCD when double checking you’ve locked your car or turned the gas cooker? For those who are genuinely afflicted by the condition, OCD is no laughing matter. NEIL BRANDWOOD reports

THE World Health Organisation ranks OCD alongside cancer as being in the top 10 of most debilitating conditions in relation to loss of quality of life and loss of earnings.

One man who knows the crippling effects of obsessive compulsive disorder is Martin O’Doherty.

“It destroys lives and can lead to suicidal feelings. It cost me my career as an occupational therapist and teacher,” he said.

But Mr O’Doherty, 36, of Westhoughton, was determined to take action and this week relaunched Bolton OCD Support Group, which he founded five years ago.

Speaking about his own experience, he said: “I’ve always had it from being a kid, I just didn’t know what it was. It started when I began high school and I was worried that doors would become locked and so I’d always be checking doors.

“It also meant I couldn’t go in windowless rooms because I was afraid I couldn’t get out.”

He shared his feelings with his parents and teachers who, in the absence of anything concrete, just put it down to him being a nervous child.

The condition eased when he was busy studying to be an occupational therapist at the University of Salford. However, when he graduated, the lack of available jobs sent him into a depression and his OCD came back with a vengeance.

“I developed intrusive thoughts that made me believe I was saying things that I hadn’t. Then I became convinced that I had some kind of contaminant on my hands and if I touched people’s food it would kill them.

“It got to the point that if I touched anything in a shop I would have to buy it because I was frightened that someone would buy it and get harmed. It got very expensive.”

The OCD was at its very worst in 2012, causing severe anxiety attacks. The intrusive thoughts became worse and Mr O’Doherty became convinced that if anyone touched anything he had touched they would die and he would be sent to jail.

It forced him to leave the teacher training course he had started and, finally, he went to see his GP.

“He was very good and I was lucky, he listened to what was going on and diagnosed OCD. Knowing what it was came as a relief and I found reassurance.”

Initially, he was afraid to take medication because — the OCD again — he thought it would mean him losing control. It was only when he was at the end of his tether that he agreed to take the prescribed medication.

“It helped and I started feeling better,” he says. “I was able to rationalise my thoughts and, bit by bit, I started to reclaim bits of my life that I’d lost.”

It was at that point that he contacted Bolton’s Mental Health Independent Support Team (MHIST) in the hope that it could put him in contact with an OCD support group where he could meet other people that had gone through what he’d gone through.

“There was no group so MHIST asked me if I’d be interested in setting one up.”

Mr O’Doherty immediately agreed, and so Bolton OCD Support Group came into being.

“There could be anything up top 15 people at each of the fortnightly evening sessions. There were lots of working people like teachers, nurses, council workers — the sort of people who’d you look at and think they didn’t have a worry in their life. But of course, you can’t see what’s going on in people’s heads,” said Mr O’Doherty.

“We talked about different coping strategies and shared day-to-day experiences. When people first came they were worried that their thoughts would sound ridiculous, but that’s what OCD does to you.

“When they open up and other members say they’ve thought and felt exactly the same, you can see the instant look of relief on their faces.”

“A popular misconception about OCD is that it just means people like cleaning and that they have to vacuum twice a day and use lots of cleaning products.

“Most people with OCD hate cleaning, but they feel they have to or something terrible will happen. For instance, they might have contaminational OCD and worry that anyone who enters their house might bring in HIV. Their sole attention would be on that visitor, looking to see if they’ve got a cut or a scratch. It would be at the expense of all social interaction. And if that person did have a scratch, then the person might have the compulsion to decontaminate their entire house. It complete dominates everything.

“With me, I don’t just go back to check my car is locked once. I have to keep going back to check it’s locked, and the handbrake is on and that it’s in first gear. Then, the OCD makes me think that on one of the checks, I hadn’t paid attention and that the car might roll and crush someone. It gets out of control; you’re imagining things terrible things that could happen five steps ahead. There are thoughts that a lot of people may have, to a lesser degree, but with OCD you can’t just dismiss them.”

“You think: ‘I don’t want that thought,’ but that means the thought comes back even more and becomes increasingly intrusive. Then you start questioning yourself about everything,and think there is something particularly wrong with you.”

In April, MHIST lost some of its funding which meant Mr O’Doherty’s group came to a temporary halt.

But thanks to a £1,500 boost from Bolton CVS, it was up and running again from Wednesday.

Its new base will be at The Hub, 9 Bold Street, Bolton, and meetings will be held fortnightly on Wednesday’s between 6.30pm and 8.30pm.

Mr O’Doherty said: “It’s a really friendly group. No-one has to be alone with intrusive thoughts – no matter how nasty and bad they are, everybody gets them.”

For further details about Bolton OCD Support Group please call 07747 381347 or visit boltonocd@gmail.com