When Does OCD Begin?

OCD can start at any time, from childhood to adulthood. A survey showed one third to one half of adults with OCD reported it started in their childhood. (That’s a lot of people!) Nobody knows for sure how many people have OCD, because many people go undiagnosed. There are several reasons some people with OCD are never diagnosed. People with OCD are secretive about there illness. Many feel embarrassed by the tics they have, and try to hide it, which can be hard depending on what it is. It can also make it harder recognize if it’s a child doing it, which can prevent anyone from noticing and realizing it’s a big problem. If they hide it, and you only see a small portion it would be easy to dismiss it as a faze, when in all likelihood it’s probably a lot worse than you know, because your only seeing part of it, and could easily turn into a BIG problem. (I know I tried every trick in the book to hide what my ticks were. Although I was already diagnosed when I tried to hide them, but the same principal applies.) Some people don’t have access to the proper healthcare needed to treat it, which is a shame because some undiagnosed people develop other problems later in life. Some people withdraw into themselves when it gets really bad because they don’t want other people to see what they’re doing, which can cause long term social problems, which could likely lead to depression. If you think about it it’s kind of like a domino effect, once one falls they all start falling. (Wow that sounded depressing in itself.) But there are things you can do to prevent it as will be stated later.