(slow guitar music)
(Voiceover) I had a very good education,
I went to a really nice school.
A bit of a high achiever at school.
I was a prefect in year 12 and school vice captain.
I was very organised.
I was always a very happy person, loved going to school,
'cause I'd see my mates every day.
But when I finished school,
that structure was taken away from me
and that's when I guess
some complications probably came up
and things got a bit more difficult.
The unknown probably scared me a bit
in terms of, I didn't know what tomorrow would bring.
The uncertainty whether or not I'd get into the uni course
I wanted to get into.
I also had a bit of a relationship breakdown at the point, as well.
I was always thinking about the worst case scenario
and I had a lot of intrusive thoughts that started to come into my head.
(electronic beat)
I started cleaning my room,
vacuuming the floor like four, five times a day.
Cleaning excessively.
It'd take me six hours, so that was my day gone.
And then I wouldn't get to see friends and stuff
because I thought what I had to do was more important.
The compulsions were a way of alleviating
the anxiety I was feeling.
It became a real problem because
I guess it started taking over from my daily life,
and then it became my priority
making sure my room was spotless.
I guess I viewed my room as somewhat of a masterpiece,
and I would compare it to something like
Da Vinci's (laughs) Mona Lisa,
which sounds really silly to say,
but for me, internally, that's what I honestly believed.
When someone would sort of come into my room,
if it was my brothers or my family member or whatever,
you know, it was like, well after I completed this task
and this ritual,
that someone had drawn a moustache on my Mona Lisa
and you know, jeopardise the integrity
of this beautiful masterpiece.
That would just ruin everything and I'd have to start again.
So it was really consuming, obviously,
and very taxing on my existence.
I would make excuses not to see people,
but you know, in reality, I was just cleaning my room.
I remember, I guess when my parents decided
that this was something that probably needed to be dealt with,
they drove me to a GP and I had a conversation with him.
I thought I was the only person in the world
that was having these things.
It felt good to know that I wasn't the only one.
Certainly gave me some perspective on things,
and allowed me to come to grips with this
as something I needed to take control of.
The GP set up an appointment for me
to meet with a psychiatrist.
That was the beginning of the journey,
in terms of just discussing what was going on.
When I would disclose the fact that
yeah, I was suffering from OCD to people,
they were just surprised and they still are.
Support of my friends was really important,
and it was always overwhelming,
their reactions and responses
and how compassionate they were towards me.
My first year of university,
a spokesperson from headspace came and did a presentation.
I had no idea that this service existed.
A youth-friendly space, to me,
was just saying that seems just so brilliant.
It's confidential, it's private,
and people there actually understand
what young people are going through.
I think something that's really important
is to remember that you're never alone in this journey.
Like a really good place to start would be somewhere like headspace.
I guess I've come to terms with the fact that
I'll probably have this condition my whole life,
but it's just about management.
Perspective has been the biggest things for me.
I look at a lot of things now and view them as trivial,
when I previously viewed them as being high priority.
I'm pretty proud of where I am now.
Having people in my room,
moving stuff around and touching things.
It's almost like back to where I was before it all happened.
It's a full circle.
Take that first step,
because you'd just be surprised and amazed
at how effective it can be.
And really turn your situation around and get you back on track.