Hello. Well, it's been a long road. I'm a 55 year old man who was "raised" in an extremely abusive family of origin. This set the tone for my life. At age 18 I became totally shut down as a result of a controlling thought that stayed with me 24/7. I dropped out of the University and wasn't able to return until 5 years had passed (by then I had a different controlling thought a trillion times more disturbing than the first). It was about 17 years later that I was diagnosed with OCD and put on a plethora of drugs (one of which gave me 3 grand mal seizures). Recently, a friend suggested that my difficulties (if a "name" was to be put to them) more closely resembled Complex PTSD than OCD. Unfortunately, daily life is still a struggle (after all these years) and quite painful. Though I feel like I continue to go round and round in circles, my friend insists that I'm making progress. It's good to have an encouraging friend. Knowing that I'm not the only one in the world to suffer (sometimes I feel, looking around, as if everyone is perfectly fine and on top-of-the-world) helps me. And thus, I was drawn to this website. I wish for each of us healing and happiness.