It Only Takes One Person

     I started this blog because I wanted to share my mental health journey with other people so that those other people might not feel so alone. For just over six years, I had felt alone with my mental health condition, and I was pretty miserable. I didn't want anyone else to feel that way. I really wasn't thinking about people reaching out to me so that I wouldn't feel alone, too.
     This past week, someone reached out to me. The person contacted me, and they told me that they read my blog and that they have OCD as well. The person just wanted to let me know that they could relate to my struggle.
     I was so grateful that someone had taken the time so say something like that to me. I hadn't really noticed, but up to that moment, I had been feeling alone with my OCD. Yes, I have a support system that I talk to regularly. Yes, the people in my support system try to understand all the OCD-related things, but sometimes, I feel like they just don't get it. It's easy to still feel alone when you feel like other people don't get what's going on with you.
     Talking to somebody who really understood what I was dealing with changed the way that I was thinking about the OCD. At that point in time, while we were chatting, I didn't have to feel awkward about my OCD or ashamed or guilty. I didn't feel like I was weird for talking about it. I wasn't afraid that my conversation partner was going to think I was asking for pity or sympathy, or playing the victim. I didn't have to do my best to say things (or type things) that made me appear to be as "normal" as possible. We were in the same boat. We were having a normal conversation about something that we both deal with every single day (like talking about how the weather effects shoe choices).
     I'll end with this: It's no fun feeling like you're alone, especially when you're dealing with the things going on inside your mind. It only takes one person talking about your shared experience with something to make you not feel alone. One person. So, if you're comfortable with it, it's okay to open up about things. It might be a relief to you or someone else, just to know that someone else is struggling with the same thing.