Hi @BethRags ! I loved your post! I connected to so much of it!! I was fascinated by what you said you consider your OCD symptoms a part of Bipolar Disorder(BD) because of the anxiety disorder/type of paranoia connection! Wow! Maybe that's why my PsychPA, no matter how much I tell her about my OCD symptoms, although she does want to put me back on Luvox to help me with that, she never says that she diagnoses me with OCD. She sticks with Severe Bipolar Disorder. I trust her judgment! I'm going to look at it that way from now on too unless I'm told otherwise by my PsychPA! I feel like a missing piece of the puzzle was just given to me, so thank you!!

P.S. I started OCD symptoms in 4th grade and it was terrible....because I was young and had no understanding of why I was acting "crazy". I was always afraid of going insane as early as I can remember! I heard something once that really resonates with me, that OCD is a way to try to have some control in a world that is out of control(or something like that). I take it to mean your own personal world is out of control, where things are either chaotic where you can't make sense of it, or you feel like you have no control, or both. Gosh, it's upsetting to me to even write about it!