Please help me welcome Michael Schramm, one of the nicest and most positive people I know! He is truly a day brightener, and I’m so happy to host him today and learn more about his experience with OCD. If you live in the Wichita, Kansas, area be sure to see him—and other amazing advocates and therapists—speak at the OCD Gamechangers event this weekend.
You’re about to share your personal experience with OCD at an OCD Gamechangers event in Wichita, Kansas. Why did you decide to tell your story on stage?
I decided to tell my story on stage because I know how isolating having OCD can be, and if it helps someone in the audience feels less alone, it is absolutely worth it. When I was diagnosed at 16 this was a disorder I knew nothing about, and didn’t know anyone who had OCD that I could relate to and have that bond with. By telling my story I hopefully can be someone that the audience can have that feeling of you know what? I am not as alone in this as I thought I was, that there are other people that I can talk to and keep in touch with.
The other reason is to show myself how far I have come in my own OCD journey; I never thought for the longest time that I could do something like this. When I experienced my first Gamechangers event in 2020 I thought it was so incredible how all these people where sharing their stories, and I thought that would be great if I could do the same one day, and here I am getting ready to do the exact thing that in 2020 I dreamed of doing. To show myself that OCD doesn’t get to dictate everything I do.
Give us a little sneak peek of what you’ll be sharing: When were you diagnosed with OCD, and how long did you have symptoms before you realized that you might have OCD?
I was diagnosed with OCD at the age of 16 in 1998 at Menninger Clinic in Topeka, Kansas. I had been receiving therapy all throughout my childhood. My symptoms started at a very young age around 5 or 6. The first intrusive thought I remember was when I was coming home on the school bus a girl got sick on the bus. I was worried I couldn’t get back on the bus because if I did I would get sick on the bus. It got so bad my mom had to start riding the bus with me; when that didn’t work my mom had to start driving me to school for a while. The other memory I had when I was child was having visions of people in my head called The Spirit People that resembled what I thought looked like Jesus. They would tell me I would have to do things like tap a certain number of times, or walk between the couch and the chair or something bad would happen to my family. It wasn’t until I was a freshman in high school that my talk therapist suspected I had OCD. She referred me to an OCD specialist at Menninger Clinic and he diagnosed me as having OCD.
Once you knew you had OCD, did you tell friends and loved ones? If so, how did you go about it? Were you nervous to do it, relieved to get it out, happy to finally talk about it?
We told family members for sure, because I had such a difficult childhood with all that had been going on with intrusive thoughts. We just didn’t know that was what it was, so we wanted to let them know. It was a lot easier to tell them.
As far as friends, I told my best friend and he was very understanding, though I was nervous that he wouldn’t quite get it or understand, but I didn’t tell anyone else for quite a long time because I just was not ready for that yet. When I diagnosed was a very rough year because I had been bullied and picked on all year long my first year of high school, which led me to transfer to a new high school. That was a good change for me.
When I was first diagnosed I started doing ERP in a group with others that had just been diagnosed as well. It was just nice being around others that had been going through their own OCD journeys as well, and to know I wasn’t the only one going through this.
What has helped you the most in your recovery process?
ERP [exposure and response prevention], and medication have helped. But what I always come back to is the OCD community. I went to my first IOCDF conference in 2018 in Washington DC when I was going through a rough patch at the time.
I was very nervous to go, but my parents thought it could be very helpful for me, and was it ever! I went there knowing no one, and met so many people who just got me, and understood me.
The next year I went to the Austin IOCDF conference and was much more comfortable and that was the year I really started to make friends that I stay in contact with on a regular basis to this day via phone conversations, Zoom meetings, and social media.
Knowing I am not alone in this has helped me more than anything. I am just blown away with how loving, supportive, and caring the OCD community is. I think of it as my extended family now.
What do you wish people understood about OCD?
That OCD is a very stigmatized disorder and it is not just about wanting things clean or wanting things color coordinated. OCD comes in so many different forms. This is a disorder that is very debilitating and that is hard to live with, and when I see things such as shirts, etc. making fun of OCD it is hurtful.
If you could give just one piece of advice to someone with OCD, what would it be?
That you can live a very fulfilling, meaningful life even though you have OCD. There are so many resources, medications, people out there that can help you live that meaningful life. You are not alone in this fight.
Alison Dotson 
Wonderful posts. Does he have q blog? Would love to read some of his posts