After presenting questions online to OCD sufferer called David I realised his answers were too structured and didn't flow as much as what they could have if I was to interview him in person so I asked him if I'd be able to meet up with him and do an interview, David said no so I proceeded to find another sufferer to play out the interview with. I asked David if he could direct me to anyone and he said he had a young friend called Jordan, Jordan is 18 years of age and live in Manchester so I got in contact with him, got to know him a little bit then met up with him and conducted an interview. The "T-" at the start of the sentences stand for 'Toni speaking' and the "J-" stand for 'Jordan speaking'.
T- What sort of OCD do you suffer from most frequently? E.g. Hoarding, checking, Contamination?
J- It's making sure things are off and making sure nothing's happened.
T- What do you mean "nothings happened?"
J- I always check Bill's house, the man who lives across the street from me to make sure it's not on fire. I always have to say in head for example "The taps are off" but I've got to say it in a perfect way, like my full attention has to be on saying it - I can't have any lights shining on my face at the time, I can't have any distractions because if I say it wrong then I feel like something bad might happen and it will be my fault...And I wash my hands until I can't take the pain any more.
T- Really?
J- Really, I can't help it.
T- Why?
J- I just always feel like my hand aren't clean, especially when I've just used the bathroom.
T- Is it when you have a bath or go to the toilet or what?
J- It's when I have a bath. I have to wash the soap, I rinse it under the shower but the shower is gross too, bits always fall off the end of it and gross me out.
T- How long have you felt this way?
J- for a very long time, It's just been different stuff over the years.
T- What did it start like?
J- I can't remember, I think it was just the slightest bit of grossness made me go and wash my hands so it must have spiralled from that.
T- Do you have any idea when it started?
J- No, if I guessed it'd be about 7 years ago.
T- Do you know what triggered it?
J- No.
T- About how many hours a day do you spend doing compulsions?
J- Erm, erm, I don't know, it probably takes about 2 hours of my day, spread out over the day that is though.
T- What time of the day is worst?
J- Definitely at night just before I go to bed, I have to check that EVERYTHING is turned off and locked and safe, I have to check on my neighbour, Bill from my living room window and I have to brush my teeth so I know they're as clean as possible, it takes me so long to do but I have to do it and if I do my routine wrong, like if I get distracted, think something else, make a noise, see something or someone talks to me I have to start over otherwise I think something bad will happen.
T- How does it make you feel when you have to do your routines?
J- Extremely annoyed and angry and upset.
T- Why does it make you upset?
J- Erm, because I have to do it, I can't help it. I feel like something bad will happen if I don't do it.
T- So it's a matter of it controlling you?
J- Yeah, sometimes I walk away and say I'm not going to do it but then I come back and do it, every time.
T- In terms of you feeling you need to wash your hands, what surfaces or objects affect you the most?
J- Gross ones, but it's the toilet flush handle thing and the door handles, they just feel like they're going to be gross.
T- Why those particular things?
J- Well the flush handle is horrible because people tend to flush the chain before they wash their hands after using the toilet don't they.
T- And why the door handles?
J- I don't know, because it always gets like condensed...I feel like because I can see something on it then I shouldn't touch it, it's just gross.
The interview followed the same questions that I asked David but I found because we were talking face to face more information was given where as online David would answer the questions only and not add any information but with Jordan I was able to direct the answers into something else, it was much more conversational and beneficial to my research. I'd ask Jordan a question then he'd answer it and that would spiral into something else which gave me more information to look into and get a clearer look into the life of an OCD sufferer. I tried to watch his facial expressions to see if his emotions, thoughts, and feelings leaked into them when he was talking about specific things but the only time I really noticed something was when he was talking about the door handle at the end, his face kind of expressed his dislike towards them which I found interesting because it made it all become real for me when I saw him kind of react like that in person. I ran out of things to talk about after this short while, I'm not sure why, so I stopped the conversations, said thank you for his time. I will think of more things I can ask him and hopefully carry on this conversation some time soon.
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