This OCD Awareness Week, we’ve teamed up with Hurt to Healing for a special podcast series exploring life with OCD — what it’s really like, beyond the clichés and stereotypes.
Hosted by Pandora Morris, who has lived with OCD since she was 12, the series includes three episodes: Pandora’s own story, followed by conversations with actor Kimberley Nixon and writer and journalist Bryony Gordon. Together, they talk openly about living with OCD, recovery, and the messy, human parts in between.
We’re really proud to be part of this collaboration. Pandora and her guests bring such depth and warmth to these conversations, and we know so many people in our community will see themselves reflected in them.
Below, Pandora shares more about her journey with OCD, what inspired her to start Hurt to Healing, and what you can expect from this special series.
My name is Pandora Morris and I have struggled with OCD for as long as I can remember.
It started in the classic way with lots of rituals around checking and safety, keeping everyone safe by saying countless numbers of prayers and then morphed over the years into an obsession with being a perfect person through fear of my worst anxieties becoming real unless I performed a number of covert, mental compulsions as well as overt, behavioural compulsions. These centred around repeating sequences of names, having to exercise after I did any kind of exposure – which usually involved doing something new – and restricting my food. I was also struggling with anorexia alongside it but will never know whether the underlying issue has always been the OCD. Needless to say it has ruled the majority of my life.
What led you to start Hurt to Healing?
I was a lawyer in my twenties and felt as though that was just a box ticking exercise in order to prove to myself that I could pursue a career which I saw as the ‘right’ profession and one which would satisfy my OCD. However, I was miserable and my OCD just got worse over the years. In my mind I said to myself that once I qualified and became a solicitor, my self confidence would improve and so would my OCD. That was not the case at all and eventually my mental and physical health was so bad that I had no option other than to stop. During COVID I got to a point when I had no fight left to give against my OCD and I ended up in treatment. During that year, for the first time ever I had the headspace to think about what I really wanted to do. I had always loved the idea of doing something in journalism or presenting and podcasts had been something during lockdown that had really helped me. I decided I wanted to create a podcast which would have been one I wished I had had access to at the beginning of my journey with OCD as well as one which my family and friends would have been able to listen to in order to have been able to understand me more. I wanted to create an encyclopaedia for mental health – something which would educate, inspire and encourage people to get the right support and to feel less alone and misunderstood.
What made you want to partner with OCD Action for this special series?
I think the work OCD Action does in raising awareness around OCD and offering so much support and education is incredible. In helping us to feel less alone and tackling misunderstanding, it helps so much in the ongoing daily struggles we face. I think it’s vital to collaborate in as many areas as we can in order to give exposure to sources of help and support, especially when it comes to OCD which is so widely misunderstood. I really hope through the partnership we will get more people to get involved with OCD Action as it is a charity I didn’t know existed until a few years ago.
Without giving too much away, what can listeners expect from the upcoming OCD Awareness Week episodes?
We have two incredibly special guests, Kimberley Nixon and Bryony Gordon who reveal their ongoing struggles with OCD and are so unbelievably honest about what they have been through and continue to go through on a daily basis. They also offer lots of advice which I found incredibly helpful for both those of us who have similar struggles as well as family members and friends of people with OCD.
You’ll be joined by someamazing guests – what was it like recording these episodes with other people who also live with OCD? Did any of the conversations resonate with your own experiences of OCD?
Absolutely, there’s so much relatability and cross over but equally the more I speak to people with OCD the more I realise what an unbelievably big bully it is that will attach to the things in life that the person living with it cares about the most. Although our OCD can be very different, it is all OCD in the end and it’s reframing it as just that. The consequences we fear the most by not performing out compulsions are all created by the OCD and the more I speak to people with OCD the more I am able to reframe certain thoughts and beliefs as ‘that’s just my OCD’ and I try to resist engaging with them as much as I can.
From your perspective, what are some of the biggest misconceptions about OCD that you’d like to challenge?
That OCD is just about either being superstitious or being a perfectionist, being overly tidy and particular about ordering things. The most common thing when I tell someone I have OCD is for them to say ‘oh I have OCD too. I have to colour code my wardrobe or order my socks in a particular way in the drawer’ or they say something like: ‘yes, my husband has OCD – he’s very rigid about his routine’. Whilst in some instances someone might have OCD but more often than not I feel that people think that being mildly obsessive means they have OCD which is so not the case as sufferers will know all too well. In my experience OCD can be paralysing at times and sadly really affects someone’s quality of life.
What do you hope people will take away from hearing these episodes?
I hope they will find comfort in knowing they are not alone and I really hope they will find some of the advice and tools we speak about helpful.
What has helped you most in your own journey with living with OCD?
- Finding a community of people who see me for me rather than focusing and punishing me for my OCD or making me feel as though I was somehow broken.
- Speaking to other people with OCD.
- ERP (Exposure Response Prevention) work, however horrible it is.
- Finding things which soothe my nervous system like Breathwork, having a bath and acupuncture.
- Singing and listening to music.
- Getting enough sleep and downtime!
For someone who might be struggling right now, what would you want them to know?
Things can improve and you are not alone. Please don’t suffer in silence – reach out to OCD Action and listen to Hurt to Healing.
How can people keep up with you and the podcast?
Because of how my OCD manifests around new things, I don’t use social media personally. I’ve been slowly getting myself to the point where I can be on it, but work closely with my team to make sure my voice comes through. Any message you send there, comments or feedback will be relayed for me to reply. I am really keen for this community to build and plan for in person events in the next year. Here are the channels you can find us on, please take a look and get in touch.
The Podcast is available on Spotify, Apple Podcasts and YouTube.
Stay Connected with Hurt to Healing:
Instagram: instagram.com/hurttohealingpod
TikTok: tiktok.com/@hurttohealingpod
LinkedIn: linkedin.com/company/hurt-to-healing
Substack: substack.com/@hurttohealing
Website: hurttohealing.co.uk
Any final thoughts you’d like to share ahead of OCD Awareness Week?
Let’s really try to raise as much awareness as we can about OCD and to bust so many of the myths and misunderstanding that surround it. Please share the episodes as much as you can with as many people as possible!