At the age of 13, Lauren Tomsett discovered she had obsessive
compulsive disorder. It controlled her life, making simple chores a
battle.
She tried to find a book to help her understand,
but all the literature was written for adults. So she wrote her own book called
Obsessive Compulsive Disaster
Her mother, Dawn Tomsett,
battled to get her on the school bus.
"Well to start with
I just thought she was being naughty, having to repeat things over and over
again," she says.
"You look back, you notice it," says her
father, Kerry Tomsett. "At the time I didn't really notice it – I just thought
it was Lauren being Lauren, and just being awkward
really."
The Tomsetts live on a kiwifruit orchard with
their three kids just outside of Tauranga, but the peaceful setting was in
complete contrast to the internal chaos their eldest daughter was
experiencing.
Lauren was a slave to obsessive thought,
which compelled her to keep checking everything around her.
"I didn't understand it was medical," says
Lauren.
"Until one day she came to me and said she thought
someone was wrong," says Ms Tomsett. "I clicked. I'd read something before about
OCD."
Lauren had obsessive compulsive disorder. Sufferers
become anxious when hounded by persistent thoughts. But the thought process
doesn't finish, and they get stuck in the loop of action and
relief.
With the support of her family, Lauren started
therapy at Tauranga Hospital.
"Relaxation, response
prevention, having a period of time where she was able to resist what she called
her urges," says Dianne Lees, clinical psychologist. "Changing the way she
thought about things, changing her thought patterns and
processes."
"We used to have to try a lot of diversion,"
says Ms Tomsett. "When she was totally overwhelmed by it, Lauren and I would go
for a walk - whether it was two o'clock in the morning whether it was raining
whatever, just get out of the house, go shopping or do something different.
"
Only 5 percent of OCD sufferers are young adolescents,
and the Tomsetts struggled to find any books or information to help. Lauren also
found a way to help herself - she wrote about her
disorder.
"I knew I was going to write a book, but I had
no idea what it was about. Then when I was at the height of the condition, I
thought, I'm going to make sure I get something out of this once it ends,
because I always believed it was going to end."
Lauren was
unable to get a publishing company interested, but undeterred she did it
herself, designing the cover and getting 50 copies made through the website
publish me.
She sells the book, Obsessive Compulsive Disaster, on TradeMe, but it is the
message, not the money that drives her to speak out.
"I'd
rather have it in a library where people can go get it out...that's what I hope.
It will get into a library eventually just once I've covered the
bill."
Lauren's psychologist Ms Lees has a copy and has
loaned it to several colleagues.
"The intensity, the
dysfunction, the anguish that was there for her came through in the book," says
Ms Lees. "And yet there's that message of recovery."
Now
aged 18, Lauren feels she is completely cured. Today she can walk past a door
without opening and closing it, or obsessing about the cracks in the
deck.
OCD affected every part of every day, making the
simplest of chores an epic battle. Therapy and writing have given her back her
life.