Terms & Conditions

MeandMyOCD is an independent peer-support community for people affected by obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD), including people living with OCD and those supporting someone with OCD.

The community provides a place for members to share experiences, discuss recovery, ask for support and connect with others.

MeandMyOCD is not a healthcare provider.

Information posted on MeandMyOCD is provided for general information, discussion and peer support only.

Content posted by members, moderators or administrators should not be treated as professional medical, psychological, therapeutic or psychiatric advice.

MeandMyOCD does not diagnose medical or mental health conditions and does not recommend that members begin, stop or change prescribed treatment or medication.

You should seek advice from an appropriately qualified healthcare professional regarding your individual circumstances.

If you believe that you or another person is in immediate danger or experiencing an emergency, contact the appropriate emergency services or healthcare provider.

You must provide accurate information when creating an account.

You are responsible for keeping your account and password secure.

You must not:

• Share your account with another person
• Access another member's account without permission
• Impersonate another person
• Create accounts for the purpose of avoiding a suspension or ban
• Use automated systems to create accounts or post spam

You are responsible for activity carried out through your account unless you have informed us that your account has been compromised.

You are responsible for deciding what personal information you share on the forum.

We strongly recommend that members do not publicly post information such as:

• Full home addresses
• Personal telephone numbers
• Private email addresses
• Financial or banking information
• Passwords
• Medical record numbers
• Information that could unnecessarily identify another person

If you wish to remain anonymous, we recommend using a username that is not directly connected to your real identity.

Members must treat one another with respect.

You must not use MeandMyOCD to:

• Bully, threaten, harass or intimidate another person
• Discriminate against or abuse another person
• Encourage violence or criminal activity
• Post illegal content
• Share another person's private information without permission
• Deliberately impersonate another person
• Post spam or repetitive promotional material
• Attempt to defraud or deceive other members
• Distribute malware or malicious links
• Circumvent website security
• Encourage dangerous behaviour
• Exploit vulnerable members
• Use the community primarily to advertise or sell products or services

Our separate Community Guidelines provide additional rules about acceptable behaviour.

MeandMyOCD recognises that reassurance seeking can form part of OCD.

Members are encouraged to provide compassionate support without repeatedly reinforcing compulsions, providing certainty about feared outcomes or encouraging behaviours that may maintain someone's OCD.

Members should not present themselves as qualified therapists, doctors or other healthcare professionals unless they genuinely hold those qualifications.

Even where a member is professionally qualified, forum discussions should not be treated as an individual clinical relationship.

Members may discuss their own experiences of medication, therapy and treatment.

However, members must not pressure another person to:

• Stop prescribed medication
• Change a prescribed dose
• Ignore professional medical advice
• Undertake potentially dangerous treatment
• Use medication prescribed to another person

Personal experiences should be clearly presented as personal experiences rather than medical advice.

You retain ownership of content that you post on MeandMyOCD.

By submitting content, you give MeandMyOCD permission to store, display, reproduce and process that content where reasonably necessary to operate, moderate, secure and maintain the community.

This permission is non-exclusive and limited to the operation of MeandMyOCD.

You must only post content that you have the right to share.

You must not knowingly upload material that infringes another person's copyright, privacy or other legal rights.

Content posted in public areas of the forum may be visible to other members and, depending on the forum settings, may also be visible to visitors who are not registered.

You should consider this before sharing personal or sensitive information.

We cannot control what another person may do with information that you choose to make publicly available.

If MeandMyOCD provides private messaging, members should understand that private messages are not intended to be routinely monitored.

However, authorised administrators may access or review messages where reasonably necessary for purposes including:

• Investigating a report
• Protecting a member
• Preventing serious misuse of the service
• Investigating illegal activity
• Maintaining website security
• Complying with legal obligations

Private messaging must not be used to harass, exploit or threaten another member.

Members can report content or behaviour that they believe breaches our rules or may be illegal or harmful.

Reports will be reviewed as reasonably practicable.

Where appropriate, we may:

• Remove or restrict content
• Contact the person who posted it
• Issue a warning
• Restrict account features
• Suspend an account
• Permanently ban an account
• Preserve relevant information
• Refer matters to appropriate authorities where required or justified

Making a report does not guarantee that content will be removed. Decisions will be based on the circumstances, our rules and applicable law.

MeandMyOCD reserves the right to moderate content and accounts.

Moderation decisions may include editing, moving, locking, hiding or removing content where reasonably necessary.

We may also restrict, suspend or permanently close accounts that breach these Terms, our Community Guidelines or applicable law.

We will aim to apply our rules fairly, but moderators may need to use judgement when dealing with individual situations.

Illegal activity and illegal content are not permitted on MeandMyOCD.

Where we become aware of content that we reasonably believe may be illegal, we may remove or restrict access to it and take any additional action required by law.

We may preserve relevant records or disclose information to appropriate authorities where we are legally required or otherwise lawfully permitted to do so.

If you believe that content has been removed incorrectly, your account has been unfairly restricted, or a report has not been handled appropriately, you may contact us to request a review.

Please provide enough information for us to identify the relevant account, post or moderation decision. Contact us at [email protected].

The MeandMyOCD name, logo, website design and original website content belong to MeandMyOCD or are used with appropriate permission.

You must not reproduce, copy or use MeandMyOCD's name, logo or original content without permission.