My Mind Has Been Paralyzed For 35 Years - Need Help

Hello, and my best wishes to you all.

I joined some years ago, and have studied the Forums a lot. Now I am ready to tell my story.

A brief summary:

I am a single man, 52 years old. When I was 17 I had a mental breakdown, from which I have never recovered. My mind was overwhelmed with fear, "seized up", and has never functioned smoothly since. For nearly thirty-five years now, my mind has been "paralyzed". The main expression of this has been severe OCD, specifically slowness. Because of this, I have never been able to work - I have never had a job. My sole source of income is a small handout from my parents - both of whom are now in their 90s. I live alone in a small apartment which my mother bought twenty years ago. I have no friends, and no social network. I slowly acquired quite good social skills, which remain. But my "default setting" is withdrawal, and I have spent most of my life as a virtual recluse. In my adult life I have had three relationships (heterosexual). Each one was abusive - I was mentally abused by each of the women.

I have prepared a fuller summary, but need advice on which Forum to post it in. Although my most evident problem is OCD, my overall life trauma is much wider than that.

Please advise, and I will post more detail.

Thanks for now,

hutty.

Two months on, and not a single person has bothered to reply. I'm not impressed.

I'll seek help elsewhere.

hutty.

I just joined after browsing for a long time too. This is exactly the response that I fear for whatever I post. Perhaps I need to rethink this step for getting help.

Thanks for taking the trouble to reply. I'm sorry that you, too, have had a disappointing experience. If I find a more fruitful online forum, I'll send you a PM.

Best wishes for your health.

hutty.

You're both welcome here. If you look at the other threads in this part of the forum. You'll see that zero or one response is pretty usual. People move very quickly into the rest of the forum to discuss there.

Also, perhaps you could consider replying to others, too? It's a good way to start to get to know people. None of us are paid or professionals. We're all here with questions or other needs, just like you both.

Hi Ada,

Thanks for your kind welcome, and your words of encouragement. I appreciate the wisdom of your comments, and the good work you and your colleagues do on the Forum.

hutty.