[MUSIC PLAYING] Our daughter suffers from OCD, Obsessive Compulsive Disorder, and she probably has had the condition since the age of eight or nine, since primary school days. She would come to us every evening very worried about lots of things that had happened, or she had harmed her friend or other people, she had left the tap on at school, there might be a fire at the school and it might be her fault. It went on for some time, and we thought that she would just grow out of this. Eventually, we did ask for-- went to the GP, we asked for help. We tried to find out what it could be, but nobody seemed to have the answer. In those days, we're now talking early 1990s, there was really-- there was no internet. There was no information, very little information. Nobody talked about mental health. There was always stigma. So our daughter kept on with these thoughts and worries that she had, and we kept saying, oh don't worry. It'll all be fine. You'll be OK. You have a child who is so funny, and characterful, and bright. And yet, there are all these strange things that you're being asked about, and you just don't even necessarily think that they could be something else. And if we'd known that this condition existed and these questions might be popping into her head, we would have thought, this is a bit strange. I wonder whether it could be OCD. But we didn't have that knowledge at the time. Unfortunately, people who have OCD hide their behaviours, so it's very difficult to know what is happening. You don't know what's happening in their thoughts. They're very embarrassed to tell you about it. They feel very weird, but they're constantly anxious. But you don't realise until you begin to suddenly notice that her hands became very rough and very red. And we discovered much later that she was washing her hands up to 50 times a day at school. This would often happen after the other children had gone back to class. She would run back into the washroom, wash her hands, and this was in order to try and relieve this anxiety. She felt, maybe this would make things better. She also kept her jumper covering up her hands, so people couldn't see quite how raw and quite how red they were. The person who suffers with OCD has to constantly hide their behaviours, because they feel so weird and embarrassed about their behaviours. Why would they be washing their hands 50 times a day? Why would they have to shower 6 times a day from top to toe? But they can't explain this to people, so they have to make up excuses for things that they do in order to not have to say, oh, this is my OCD. But if they knew they had OCD, and if they knew that the other people around them know that they have OCD, they would be so much freer to be able to talk about it. And hopefully, the disorder doesn't have to become such a secret disorder so that-- because if they can externalise more or talk about it more freely, it will take a great load off their minds. That will not cure it. That will not help it completely, because they will still be suffering with these intrusive thoughts. But at least they will be understood. If you have OCD, you can certainly thrive in life. And there are a lot of people who probably even now still hide their OCD to a point, but they manage to thrive in life. But there are also many people who have OCD who have never been able to come out and explain to people or tell people what they are suffering. And some of those people can never leave their home. They can't. There are too many germs about. Their families can't help them. They may not have the funds either to help themselves to go and get-- if they're on a very long waiting list, they're not able to get the right therapy. But they might not even want to approach their GP in the first place. So for those people, it would be very difficult. But at least if we can start early on in primary schools by letting teachers know what the symptoms are and what to look for, there's a much greater chance in spotting OCD, talking about it, and hopefully dealing with it before this condition actually becomes entrenched. I believe it's probably much more treatable and manageable if you start very early on and the person isn't suffering on their own thinking they're going crazy. Daniel and I setup Nip in the Bud as an online portal that offers information about all sorts of mental health conditions, and all our resources are free. Early diagnosis is key. Early intervention is what Nip in the Bud believes in. [MUSIC PLAYING]