Anyone else hid their mental illness from parents and regret it

[Final_frontier]

Sorry this is long and sorrt for my English. My OCD started when I was 12 years old.(2007) Following weird behaviour in school, the principal called me and he made me cry for half an hour straight. He called my father and told him to show me to psychiatrist. My father came back home and told my mother and sister. My mom scolded me and told me I'd brought shame on the family and so did my sister. From that moment on, I hid my illness and suffered in silence as my illness began to get worse and worse. When I was 15 or something, internet came home and i confirmed my condition as obsessive compulsive disorder but I still continued to hide it and instead decided to rely on internet self help books. But my illness only got worse and worse and i began to become severely depressed by the ages of 16-17, school was hell. No matter how bad it got, i used to cry myself to sleep but disclosing it to parents was like the last thing in my mind. Then one day, my mom began to really torture me so bad and all the verbal abuse, i couldnt take it anymore and those words just accidentally came out of my mouth "I have OCD". From that moment on, realising I have an illness, my parents' attitude totally changed and they began to be very supportive and for the first time, I was recieving professional treatment. Im 25 now and I still suffer from depression although the OCD is less and i regret with all my heart that i didnt get help earlier. All those critical years of adolescent development I missed, i lagged behind everyone in acquiring social skills and the depression I acquired seems to be here to stay. Yet there is nothing i can do to change the past. I think my story if I ctb is an ultimate tragedy resulting from the ignorance and stigma around mental health that society has and leading to failure of early effective treatment of mental illmess. I feel if i have received early effective treatment, I might be a totally different person than I am now. But the damage has been done and theres nothing I can do to change it.

 

[woxihuanni]

From the way your almost only interaction here also seems to be about your OCD, yes it looks pretty severe and crippling. I hope you find relief.