u/Hot-Sea-8439

My friend has ocd and i dont know how to help

Im 20(F) and my friend is 19(M). We are friends for almost 8 years. Last year i moved out for college and he was still living in our hometown so we were not seeing eachother a lot but we kept communcating often. I was throwing a party and he came for like 3 days. At that time he confessed me he is bi and i was the first person he ever told this. Also he told me that he got diagnosed with ocd. He explained everything to me, from what ocd really is to what the past few months of his life were. And they were awful. He is from a very religius family and he felt so guilty about liking boys. So i guess thats what activated the disorder. Anyways, he tells me that, i ask questions to understand etc and from then, we talk about it often, especially for his sexuality and i saw his become more confident agbout himself. I think i made him realise its okay to be whatever. Because due to his family, he had the idea that nobody would or should accept him. Time goes on and his family finds out. The chaos begins. Awful things happen. I go as often as i can to our hometown to help him and support him. They said and did awful things. This thing goes on for about 3-4 months and then eventually his family calms down. Not that they accept it, but there is not a chaos going on all day. So summer goes by, everthings fine, we are going out almost every other day. Then, september comes. He started canceling me, with excuses like he ill or something. I believe it so i dont think very much of it. One week is becoming two weeks and so on. So i start worrying and susspecting something bad is happening. He does not answering any messages or calls and he is nowhere to be found. I went to find his father because i was really worried. I had in my mind that the gay thing came to the surface again so they dont let him out or they took his phone. His father was very angry with me because i was asking a lot of people were he was etc. I told him im worried and asked what happened. He said that my friend is sick and is not okay and when he will be better he will contact me. I was socked. I didnt know what else to do. I never stopped reaching out to him, saying im here for him and whenever he wants we can catch up. also that he doesnt need to explain anything to me, i just want to see him cause io missed him. I didnt want him to feel the burden of having to explain things that he may dont want to. Now is april. He sarted answering to some texts but nothing special. A few days ago i saw him. We catched up a little. He is like 30kg up, seeming not okay. He was always a guy that was working out and stuff so that rung a bell that he may not be okay. Another thing is that when he first told me about his ocd and started the medication, he was a lot better and he started having hate for the church. He did not like that they didnt not allow him to be what he wanted. Anyways, when i saw him a few days earlier, he had just done a tattoo sayin smth "god lover" and a cross. I was very confused and very sad because he is clearly going through a very difficult phase but i dont know any possible way that i can help him or even just be by his side. He completely cut off everyone. I feel awful. What's your advise?

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u/Hot-Sea-8439 — 5 hours ago