Julie Burnfield

Hi! I'm Julie and I have OCD! The first part of healing is admiting you have a problem right? So let's just say it...i have OCD! Most days it feels like OCD is me and that it controls every part of my life and who I am but I have learned that OCD is NOT me...it's just something i suffer from and I ultimately i cannot afford to tie up my entire identity in a mental disorder!

I am 31 years old and have suffered from OCD for as long as I can remember, I can recall obsessions and compulsions being part of my life as young as 5 years old. My OCD started out simply and as I grew so did my OCD until the point in my teenage years when I could no longer ignore it and knew that something was desperately wrong. Unfortunately it was not until i was in my early 20's that I first sought help for my problem and not until a couple years later that i discovered the great benefit of psychotropic medication.

When my husband approached me about doing a podcast about OCD I was very hesitent at first because OCD is such a personal disorder that it's not something I really felt comfortable sharing with the world. But after thinking about it I realized that I had a unique chance to tell people about OCD and how it effects my life and the life of my husband...what it's really like Living with OCD.

My hope for all of this is that I will be able to let people know that even though OCD is such a private disorder there are other people out there that suffer from the same stuggles and that we do not have to be alone. If we can touch just one person through our podcast then it will all be worth it. One person that knows they are not alone and that someone really understands what they are going through is the ultimate reward for our labor. "A burden shared is a burden halfed."