(Image: Rose Ellen Dix)

The intrusive thoughts. The compulsions. The shame. The reality of living with OCD.

“It’s not about having all the answers. It’s about making you feel less alone.”

Rose Ellen Dix, one half of YouTube couple Rose & Rosie, is getting more personal than ever in RoseCD, a new podcast exploring her lifelong experience of living with Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (OCD).

Rose has lived with OCD throughout her life and was diagnosed aged 17. She is now exploring her experience of the condition in depth through RoseCD, sharing what it feels like to live with OCD in her own words, with honesty, humour and warmth. Now, in her first podcast dedicated entirely to her own experience, she is talking openly about the parts of OCD that are often misunderstood or left unsaid — from intrusive thoughts and compulsions to health anxiety, shame, perfectionism, panic spirals and the impact it can have on relationships.

RoseCD is a ten-episode first season .The podcast is entirely self-produced by Rose, with episodes based on her own lived experience rather than a clinical or expert perspective.

“I live with OCD. Not as an expert and not as a clinician. As someone who’s spent almost twenty years trying to understand their own brain. RoseCD isn’t about teaching people what OCD is. It’s about showing them what it feels like.”

“I wanted to make something that I would have wanted when I was younger — something that made me feel less weird, less ashamed and less alone,” says Rose. “OCD can make you think you’re the only person in the world having a particular thought. Sometimes just hearing someone else say, ‘I’ve thought that too,’ can make a huge difference.”

Rose says the aim is simple: to talk honestly about what OCD actually feels like from the inside, share what she has learned about living with it, and create a space where people can recognise thoughts they may have been too frightened, embarrassed or ashamed to say out loud.

RoseCD is available on Spotify and digital platforms. If you have been affected by anything discussed in this release, Samaritans are available free, day or night, on 116 123.