Verified by 
Thirty years ago, as a confused 17-year-old struggling with challenges I knew nothing about, I bought a cheap silver-plated dog tag and paid a mall jeweler to inscribe on it a single word: "Believer."
I'm not entirely sure why.
Did my teen self understand that the worst childhood struggles he'd experienced were rooted in doubt? Did he somehow sense that all too soon his life would spiral out of control because of a condition known as The Doubting Disease?
I really can't say. But what I do know is this: In the decades that followed, as my OCD obsessions and compulsions progressively consumed me, it was that dog tag I found myself clinging to. And when eventually I stumbled my way into treatment and faced the rigors of exposure therapy, it was that word, Believer, that I found myself whispering again and again.
Today my old dog tag is worn thin and tarnished, but it still represents for me the single greatest reminder of what it takes to navigate the OCD world that I've come to call "The Shadow of Doubt"--namely, an ample supply of belief. We who live with this disorder know how imperative it is that we believe beyond our nagging, often debilitating doubts. Did I lock my door? Are my hands really clean? Will something horrible happen if I don't count to three? As we're taught in therapy, the objective is not to answer these questions conclusively, but rather to accept the uncertainty around them and learn to sit with the anxiety that this uncertainty creates. Or, put another way:
We must dare to believe... beyond our doubts.
Over the past five years, I have made this my mantra and have put it at the center of all of my outreach. Now, it's my great privilege to help the nonprofit International OCD Foundation launch a sweeping new "Dare to Believe" campaign, aiming to convey what's possible when we dare to believe... that treatment works. And dare to believe... that we are not alone in our struggles. And dare to believe... that recovery is possible.
As part of this campaign, and in advance of this year's OCD Awareness Week, I am working with the IOCDF to collect brief "messages of hope" around the Dare to Believe theme. And I need your help. Whether you're a person with OCD, a parent or other loved one impacted by OCD, or an OCD treatment provider, if you've seen the hope that proper treatment provides, please click here to share that hope.
Together, I know we can help so many others Dare to Believe!
Gratefully yours,
- jeff
