Hi this is my first post here, I am 17 and I am a OCD and social phobia sufferer.
Germs is the area which affects me most. I wash my hands at least 40 times per day. If I touch anything that I don't know is clean to my standards I have to wash my hands, if I don't wash my hands I start to heat up and get really hot headed and stressed and end up a crying on-edge mess.
Due to my excessive hand washing I now have bad dermatitis on my hands, which require me to use steroid hand creams and other creams/ointments from the doctor, I have to use this morning, day and night. If I go a day without applying hand cream my hands bleed, they hurt me 24/7 they sting like mad.
Obviously this frustrates my Mother and everyone else in my life, I feel really bad because of this.
Due to my hygiene issues, I had to be home schooled, I have no GCSE's, no BTEC's, no A Levels ... Nothing, but I am a really intelligent person, but have never found any way of getting a home course.
I have now got to the age where child benefit etc will stop, and I am looking to get a job, my Mother cant afford to pay for me forever, will any employer really hire me, having to wash my hands every 2 minutes?
I don't want to go on benefits, but I just cant find a job that will support my condition and be fully understanding about it
Do any of you know of a way of working from home? or any way of getting an education from home (other than open college/uni which costs a bomb!)?
I also suffer from social phobia and general anxiety, which has been so bad that I have months where I can barely leave the house, I have tried CBT but that hasn't seemed to help at all, and I don't want to go on medication.
I struggle to leave the house, when I do I get really bad pains and feel like I need a poo, but desperately and it hurts so much. this has ruined my life, I dont get to go out of the house much now, and when I do I cant be out for long
Is there a way I can work from home? I just feel stuck, lost and depressed that my life is going nowhere
Thanks in advance for all your help, I didn't know where else to turn