I remember reading this for the first time back in 2016 when the unofficial translations came out online, and as a teenager with undiagnosed OCD who had never thought about or tried to get any help for it and felt so alone and like such a weirdo for being such a germaphobe (my OCD also includes other things but germaphobia has been the longest and most consistent part of it for me), in a weird way this manga helped me feel understood and hopeful that maybe one day I could get better. I was extremely depressed during that time in my life for so many reasons and getting treatment for my OCD, even after I was diagnosed, was made extremely difficult by the fact that my autism and ADHD hadn’t been diagnosed yet and I didn’t even realise I had them and not knowing the difference between intrusive OCD thoughts, the autistic need for everything to always be the same, and the constant noise caused by the inattentive side of my ADHD, made treatment VERY difficult. I didn’t even fully know what counted as an intrusive thought, what counted as a compulsion, or any of that. But what the ML says in the first chapter when he’s explaining exposure therapy for OCD is 100% correct and still the method that is often used today, you start with the thing that makes you the least uncomfortable (it still makes you uncomfortable but not as much as the other things), and you start doing it, you can go however fast or slow you need to with the process and take breaks whenever you need, and you keep repeating doing that thing until it gradually makes you less and less uncomfortable, until eventually it no longer makes you uncomfortable at all, then you move onto the next thing. The only thing he said that was wrong is that once you finish with the 10th thing you’re “cured”, it’s not permanent, you have to keep up with those methods and keep exposing yourself in order to maintain a state where your OCD doesn’t bother you, it’s the exact same as building muscle, once you build lots of muscle it doesn’t just stay there even if you stop exercising completely, no you have to continue exercising at the same rate you were to build that muscle in order to maintain it, otherwise all that progress withers away and you’re back at square one. It’s the same with exposure therapy, if you don’t keep up with exposing yourself regularly and keep working to make yourself less uncomfortable then you will lose all the progress you have made and go right back to square one, that’s what happened to me. Also, it doesn’t necessarily have to be only 10 things you need to conquer, if there are multiple facets to your OCD then you need to overcome and become comfortable with things of all levels for each different facet, for me paranoia that I’m being stalked is one facet of my OCD along with germaphobia and is something that would have its own separate list of things for me to overcome. You should also be seeing a therapist who you are comfortable with and LISTENS to you and lets you choose the pace and direction of your exposure therapy, and also a separate therapist to discuss your anxieties and worries about the exposure therapy with, or if you have other mental health concerns other than OCD you need to see a separate therapist for those concerns. Exposure therapy for OCD only works when the other parts of your life and your mind are calm and in order, because if you have stress coming from other places while you’re trying to go through exposure therapy your mind will be distracted and you won’t make the best progress you can with exposure
I remember reading this for the first time back in 2016 when the unofficial translations came out online, and as a teenager with undiagnosed OCD who had never thought about or tried to get any help for it and felt so alone and like such a weirdo for being such a germaphobe (my OCD also includes other things but germaphobia has been the longest and most consistent part of it for me), in a weird way this manga helped me feel understood and hopeful that maybe one day I could get better. I was extremely depressed during that time in my life for so many reasons and getting treatment for my OCD, even after I was diagnosed, was made extremely difficult by the fact that my autism and ADHD hadn’t been diagnosed yet and I didn’t even realise I had them and not knowing the difference between intrusive OCD thoughts, the autistic need for everything to always be the same, and the constant noise caused by the inattentive side of my ADHD, made treatment VERY difficult. I didn’t even fully know what counted as an intrusive thought, what counted as a compulsion, or any of that. But what the ML says in the first chapter when he’s explaining exposure therapy for OCD is 100% correct and still the method that is often used today, you start with the thing that makes you the least uncomfortable (it still makes you uncomfortable but not as much as the other things), and you start doing it, you can go however fast or slow you need to with the process and take breaks whenever you need, and you keep repeating doing that thing until it gradually makes you less and less uncomfortable, until eventually it no longer makes you uncomfortable at all, then you move onto the next thing. The only thing he said that was wrong is that once you finish with the 10th thing you’re “cured”, it’s not permanent, you have to keep up with those methods and keep exposing yourself in order to maintain a state where your OCD doesn’t bother you, it’s the exact same as building muscle, once you build lots of muscle it doesn’t just stay there even if you stop exercising completely, no you have to continue exercising at the same rate you were to build that muscle in order to maintain it, otherwise all that progress withers away and you’re back at square one. It’s the same with exposure therapy, if you don’t keep up with exposing yourself regularly and keep working to make yourself less uncomfortable then you will lose all the progress you have made and go right back to square one, that’s what happened to me. Also, it doesn’t necessarily have to be only 10 things you need to conquer, if there are multiple facets to your OCD then you need to overcome and become comfortable with things of all levels for each different facet, for me paranoia that I’m being stalked is one facet of my OCD along with germaphobia and is something that would have its own separate list of things for me to overcome. You should also be seeing a therapist who you are comfortable with and LISTENS to you and lets you choose the pace and direction of your exposure therapy, and also a separate therapist to discuss your anxieties and worries about the exposure therapy with, or if you have other mental health concerns other than OCD you need to see a separate therapist for those concerns. Exposure therapy for OCD only works when the other parts of your life and your mind are calm and in order, because if you have stress coming from other places while you’re trying to go through exposure therapy your mind will be distracted and you won’t make the best progress you can with exposure