A very special Valentine's Day message to everyone who suffers from OCD, or any mental health issue.

Know this and be comforted today: You are not alone!

Sadly, our consumption-driven, self-centered, instant-gratification society that is the USA today leaves little time for the love, compassion, support, and understanding people with mental health issues of all kinds can use. We suffer feelings of shame for simply being different; we are stigmatized by others for not being "normal;" OCD sufferers in particular live in fear of losing their jobs, friends, and loved ones. We hide our health issues so as not to be ostracized by others.

OCD is not a joke, to be made fun of like so many episodes of the TV series "Monk." Our interesting cognitions and brain chemistries have contributed more to human advancement than most folks realize. We feel, and feel deeply, and when obsessions kick in, it can magnify these feelings a thousandfold, whether good or bad. And when you're down, while others think you have a mere headache, you feel like you're spinning in a black hole of pain, with no escape save the wish for it all to end...

Yet people with OCD need not be condemned to being loners, hermits, scuttled friendships, and failed romantic relationships, as so often is the case. There are real cures, simply click and explore, and escape big pharma's prescriptions galore.

The REAL sickness is not with OCD victims, and others with mental health issues: it's the ugliness of an intolerant society which stigmatizes us like the lepers Jesus Christ embraced.

Sincere wishes of Love, Hope, Healing, and Future Happiness to all. -BigForks, 2/14/07