Hello Chantel: Thank you for bringing your concern here to PC. I see this is your first post. Welcome to Psych Central.

You asked if your OCD could be the cause of your stomach distress. I'm neither a mental health nor a medical professional. So I can't give you an authoritative answer to that. My personal thinking, however, would be there would be no direct connection between the two. However, you mentioned you've been struggling with symptoms of OCD for 10 years, just accepted it, & told no one. I would imagine that has resulted in you experiencing a significant amount of generalized anxiety in your day-to-day life.

In a different way, I have had personal experience with just accepting something that was going on with me for years & telling no one. And it would be my thought that, perhaps, it is the day-to-day anxiety you may carry around regarding your OCD symptoms that could be at the bottom of your stomach distress. One thing I do know, based on my own personal experience, is that constant day-in day-out anxiety wears a person down even if it's not enough to prevent you from functioning. I've sometimes likened it to a steam heating system. If the pressure builds up over time, & there's no release valve, sooner or later there will be a breach. The pressure will find the weakest link in the system & that's where it will blow out. Perhaps in your case your digestive system has been the weakest link?

Anyway... these are my thoughts with regard to your post. One additional forum, here on PC, that may be of interest to you would be the Health Support forum. Here's a link:

https://psychcentralforums.com/health-support/

You might also take a look at the anxiety forum:

https://psychcentralforums.com/anxie...c-and-phobias/

And then here are links to 3 articles, from Psych Central's archives 1 on the subject of OCD, 1 on anxiety disorders, & 1 that discusses the effects of stress on the body:

Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder (OCD) | Psych Central

Anxiety Disorders: Symptoms, Types & Treatments | Psych Central

The Physical Effects of Long-Term Stress

I hope you find PC to be of benefit.