A Letter From Your Best Friend With OCD

To my best friend,

Thank you for being strong enough to take on obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) with me. Although you yourself don’t have it, you deal with it because I deal with it, and that means so much to me. Since it began I’ve had people who have supported me and helped me through it, especially my mom, and now I have you, which is a big help. I feel safe talking to you about it. I feel comfortable telling you about all of the intrusive thoughts, the ruminating, the anxiety it causes. And you listen. You’ve never once made me feel inadequate or like I’m not trying hard enough. You’ve never told me I’m not trying hard enough. You’ve simply listened, understood, and talked me through it. You’ve had few questions to ask about it, but when you did ask, you always told me to only talk about it if I was completely OK with it. And with you, I was.

Thank you for being patient with me. Thank you for allowing me to apologize when I’m being overcome by guilt and anxiety, for letting me vent for as long as I need to about it, and for being one of the greatest support systems I could have. That’s truly what someone with obsessive-compulsive disorder needs. Security, safety, understanding, and patience. And there are few people in the world who would truly be willing to be those things for someone.

Thank you for being strong enough to take on OCD, even if you don’t completely understand what’s going on in my head and emotions. And even if some of the obsessions are really embarrassing or frightening to me, thank you for not making me feel unsafe. Thank you for letting me express myself in ways I can’t express myself with anyone else, and thank you for just being your beautiful, amazing self. You don’t know how much that means to me.

— Your best friend

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Photo via Unsplash, by Aidan Meyer