Coming Clean: Living with OCD

An honest and heart-breaking description of one woman's daily battle with a much misunderstood illness: OCD

Hayley Leitch was just four when she felt the need to jump into her father's fishpond. Small for her age and unable to swim, Hayley almost drowned, but she couldn't stop herself. One compulsion followed another until soon Hayley was performing exhausting rituals and plagued by intrusive thoughts every day. She washed her hands with bleach and scrubbed her house for hours on end in order to combat her obsession with germs. Her fear of contamination was so crippling it prevented her from holding her babies at birth. On the eve of her wedding, Hayley cleaned her house for 18 hours solid. Her husband Robin pleaded with his wife to seek help. He suspected post-natal depression, but he was wrong: Hayley was suffering with Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (OCD). The illness had blighted her life and almost driven her to suicide. Hayley knows she will never be "cured" of OCD but explains how professional help saved her life by bringing her illness under control. It’s Hayley’s wish to give hope to other OCD sufferers and allow them to lead a happier life.

Hayley Leitch was diagnosed with OCD is 2007. She is a personality on the UK television show Obsessive Compulsive Cleaners. Veronica Clark is the author of A Dog Called Dez, Justice for Colette, and Stolen Girl.