How is it like to live with OCD?

It looks like...

"I feel like a puppet of my OCD which forces me..."
Instead of focusing on school, work, family, friends, health or recreation, people with OCD end up spending their time and energy on compulsions. Most of them know that this behavior is illogical, but this doesn't convince their brain that they can take a break and stop looking for certainty all the time. That's why explaining to someone with OCD that their actions are irrational probably isn't doing them any good. They already know this; in fact, their frustration at their inability to control their thoughts and compulsions despite knowing they are irrational is itself a source of suffering.
I get home after a full day at work, I try to take a shower and rest, but I already know what is coming; my OCD before entering the bathroom begins to give me indications of what I should do and how otherwise, something terrible will happen, even though the thought is laughable and I recognize that it makes no sense, anxiety invades me, and before the possibility of threat, the game of obsession and compulsion begins. "If I don't turn off the shower thinking about something harmonious, something bad will happen to my family" under that trigger, I start... I turn it on and off again and again until the last thought after turning off the faucet is "clean" and "nice"; otherwise, I have to start all over again. 

My time in the shower is stretched; my family asks me why I turn the faucet on and off and what should be a time to relax and rest ends up being a time of physical and mental exhaustion.

Time and energy on compulsions...
Instead of focusing on school, work, family, friends, health, or recreation, people with OCD spend their time and energy on compulsions. Most of them know that this behavior is illogical, but this doesn't convince their brain that they can take a break and stop looking for certainty all the time. That's why explaining to someone with OCD that their actions are irrational probably isn't doing them any good. They already know this; in fact, their frustration at their inability to control their thoughts and compulsions despite knowing they are irrational is itself a source of suffering.

Strong alert response...

As you can imagine, these thoughts make people with OCD feel deeply insecure about some of the most important aspects of their lives. Unable to feel that their thoughts are just thoughts, people with OCD develop a strong distress response: their mind and body go on high alert. Tolerating this distress is extremely difficult, so people feel the need to do something about the thoughts. Sometimes it's about making sure the thoughts don't come true, and sometimes it's about escaping the pain of having those thoughts.

OCD can wreak havoc on all aspects of a person's life. It doesn't help when people around them misinterpret their symptoms, calling them control freaks, neat freaks, obsessives, "some kind of OCD," or anything else. It turns out that people with OCD really don't want control (in the form of neatness, cleanliness, or anything else). They feel they need control because their mind constantly tells them that things are not right and that lack of control leads to overwhelming distress.

Learning all we can about OCD is a super important step in our recovery.
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