Is OCD curable or chronic?

I know that some mental illnesses can actually be cured and completely gotten rid of using treatment/medication/therapy/etc, but some of them cannot and must be treated and managed for the rest of your life. Can you ever completely cure yourself of OCD? Or must it be treated for life?
I have had a recurring type of OCD for the past 4 years & it always comes back in different forms. But for some reason my psychiatrist has only put me on depression/bipolar meds but none for my anxiety and OCD.

That's a nice way to look at it!!!

I hate to tell you, I'm fairly certain that mental illness cannot be "cured" (unless it is the result of some other medical problem that when addressed will resolve the psychiatric condition). Really, any form of mental illness is something that has to be initially treated and then managed for the rest of your life. There may be times when it is better, and times when it is worse, but it will always be there. You will always have to treat and manage it, and make changes in your life that will help you to stay as stable as possible.

It's looking a lot like I will be this way for life. I'm 26, and have dealt with this since as far back as I can remember (almost) untreated, and unrecognised, thus left to fester and grow, and so far the people I've seen have made it fairly clear that I may never.. you know.. be normal. I guess it depends on the severity, the person, and the treatment available. That's not to say that it can't be improved and life improved, which has been made clear to me to be doable. I accepted a long time ago that I'm not "right" and never will be, that's a sheeter, but I'll live with it as best I can, what treatment does is help you better deal with it, in my case anyway.

You can recover from mental illness. It might not necesarily be a cure, but the symptoms won't bother you or interfere with your dreams. You are young, and you should have every reason to believe that one day you can take control of your illness so don't give up hope or your sense of control of your own life.

TheMajor is right. There are no "cures" for mental illness. But you can learn to cope and perhaps live almost as a normal person does, so in that case, onionknight is also right. You may need meds, you may not. You have to find what works for you. There are plenty of books that can help, including The OCD Workbook, 2nd edition, by Bruce Hyman.

I had OCD when I was 3 years old. My comic books had to be sorted by Donald Duck, Daffy Duck, Bugs Bunny, and so on and so on. That's as far back as I can remember. When I was 28 (1981) I went to a transactional analysis weekend seminar and chose (yes, I chose) to give up perfectionism. Remember "I'm OK, You're OK"? That's transactional analysis, or TA. I was literally making myself miserable, and probably all those around me too. My house, my kids, my job, everything had to be perfect. In my 20's I stayed up until 3 am to clean my house, so I could do it with no one around - no one to mess up what I had already cleaned. Since 1981 I've gradually wound down. I just dusted my bedroom yesterday because I couldn't stand it anymore (the dust bunnies had dust kitties and dust squirrels playing hide and seek with them). I fortunately live alone now so I can control my surroundings. I still alphabetize my CD's, DVD's and well, you should see my bookshelves. Labels in my cupboards all face forward. I worked in a store for 8 months and learned to "front product". It was my best thing. I wondered why some people found it so hard. When I'm in a store now I front product just for the fun of it - maybe 5 minutes out of my shopping trip. I feel like I've accomplished something - made the world easier for other shoppers to find the special jam they always buy. My bathroom sink, tub, kitchen sink and dishes have to be spotless. The rest, well dust never killed anyone, did it? And yes, I'm allergic to dust mites. No I'm not a slob. My house is neat and tidy and if people come over they see no dust in my living room and my bathroom and kitchen are presentable. (I live in a 500 sq. ft. apartment). And I always close my bedroom door so they can't see the mess in there. So you can choose to control your OCD to a certain extent, and choose what you obsess over. Alphabetize CD's - well ok them - pretty harmless - just don't yell at your spouse for putting Tom Petty under H for Heartbreakers instead of T for Tom, like I did once. The spouses just don't get it. I'm an accountant and I use my OCD for good at work - when the numbers work, it's just magic. I get so happy!

I worry about my 35 year old daughter. I see in her the same OCD as I had, and it scares me. When she was 10 I could open her bedroom door and swear that no one lived there. It was like a spare room, nothing of any identity anywhere. (My other daugher's room was pretty normal - when she was 10 it looked like a bomb made of toys and clothing had gone off in there). What if she never gets to have an intervention like I had in the form of a TA minithon (or some other kind)? She doesn't listen to me, so I can't make her see what she's doing to herself and her family. And she is so stubborn.

Comments or advice?

From what I understand, there is a brain surgery that is used as an extreme measure for severe and treatment resistant OCD, although I believe it is considered an outdated and archaic procedure that yields limited results. It's rarely used anymore, if at all.

Other than that, we're pretty much stuck with it no worries though, available treatments can greatly alleviate the symptoms.

I don't know much about your situation or your pdoc, but if I had to guess I would say your doctor hasn't prescribed you OCD meds because of the Bi Polar. I have Bi Polar II as well, and my doctor wouldn't even consider an SSRI until I was stabilized, and even then we did so with caution. The reason being that OCD meds (SSRIs) can increase the risk of mania in people who are Bi Polar. It's likely your doc is trying to treat the Bi Polar first, as that is considered the more serious condition.