Ugh

Recently I was reading a post by a woman who suffers from OCD.  As a fellow sufferer I felt her pain and anguish. I was reading through the comments left on her page. I was, at first, really comforted by the support she was receiving until I started to read posts referring to her diet and vitamin intake. I was horrified and angry. Neither of these posters were doctors or dietitians.  In fact, one of them said they had never known anyone with OCD. I am going to take a second to say that some mental illness is vastly improved by diet. There are some forms of autism that have had great success with a change of diet and supplements  That being said not all metal illness can be cured by salads and gluten free pasta. It would be like thinking that one antibiotic cures all infections. It is not so and it does not work  People need to stop it. Just stop. Stop sitting on your high horse and judging everyone. Stop telling people that have no idea what OCD is or people that have just been diagnosed that diet change can cure them. It gives them false promises that can not be fulfilled. It makes them think that they can cure themselves with special salads with extra tomatoes. It victimizes us. Gives us false hopes. When we fail to cure our disease with these ridiculous notions we are left feeling like failures. We are left feeling hopeless and ashamed. Are you going to be there to pick up the pieces left behind from your "helpful" advice. No you are not. Diets help some mental illness but it does not change OCD. OCD  is a genetic mental illness. It is a hereditary disease. Do not tell me that if my grandmother had stayed away from fried chicken or ice cream that I would not suffer from OCD. That's silly. People unfamiliar with how OCD works, that believe this tripe will then start to judge us. They will get the idea that if we eat differently or change our habits that we could tame our OCD. That we are somehow responsible for our own disorder. That we can change the severity. That we want to suffer. This is simply not true. It is damaging. It is hurtful.
All of my life I have suffered from OCD. It has been a hard struggle. I don't need some holier than thou person who heard that their second cousin's best friend's sister once had OCD and cured it with vitamins. It is ridiculous. If you are not a doctor, dietitian  or OCD sufferer do not tell people that they should try dietary supplements or diets to change their symptoms. Stop harming them with your unproven and  highly inaccurate advice. You are wrong and are spreading the myth that we must like to suffer or we would change our eating habits. If I had an extra toe because my family all had extra toes and it passed on to me would you suggest that I take a vitamin or eat differently so it would disappear? Of course not. That would be silly. That would be dumb. OCD was passed down to me. I don't like it , but I have to accept it. If your advice actually worked, don't you think OCD would be extinct? No one wants to suffer like this. No one wants to be told that their suffering is because they didn't try hard enough or eat well enough. You can not cure OCD. There is no magical pill, special vitamin, or phantom diet that will change that. It is something that we will live with for the rest of our lives. We make it better with therapy and medication. We make it better by talking about it and being honest with ourselves and each other. We do not make it better by spouting off things we have no idea about. We do not make it better by saying that we can cure ourselves by diets and vitamins. Please before you make comments about how you think diets will cure everything, research the disorder you are talking about. Please educate yourself. If you do not your advice may be doing much more harm than good.
                                                                    Neurotic Nelly