I consider myself "recovered" from OCD. That is, I take medication, Celexa, and have been for some time. I am no longer afflicted with it, and live a fulfilling life. However, I have felt the need to post about one of the more troubling and bizarre aspects of OCD, about which I only read one little blurb once in an OCD book, and this, after exhaustive research. Up until that time I thought that maybe I was mad, afflicted with some more serious disorder, but I was lucky to have a psychiatrist at UCLA who was a specialist in OCD, and, when I disclosed to him this one baffling, and horrific symptom, he assured me that it was, in fact, a manifestation of OCD, and that it was rare, and not talked about too often, but, nonetheless, a part of OCD. And that symptom is this: I would look at things, a salad, a crack in the pavement, and it would look like it was under a microscope, a magnifying glass and was, therefore, grotesque and horrifying looking; mold in the bathtub was a horrific site, as it was blown up, and magnified, to such a degree, that I could almost see each and every little crack in it; and things that were inherently grotesque, like pictures of anatomy, were most horrifying. I became so terrified of looking at so many things, and, especially at things like cracks, and holes in fixtures, pavement, walls. Life looked like it was under a magnifying glass, and the power of detail was frightening to me, like a bad LSD trip (I've never taken LSD, but have heard what it is like.) It was actually more this, than the lining up of things, the counting, the checking, the ritualizing with numbers, the fear of contamination, that drove me to start on medication. Anybody who is going through this, rest assured, that it is only OCD, and not some psychosis. And, also, rest assured, that medication will eradicate it completely, at least it has for me. Feel free to contact me if you have been through this. In the meantime, here's to recovering from OCD, through medication, or behavioral modification, or whatever your methods be.