A girl has revealed how her obsessive compulsive disorder (OCD) turned so debilitating that it convinced her she had died and was residing in the afterlife following a panic assault in the ocean.

Daniella Arenare, 34, from Sedgley, West Midlands, has battled symptoms of the condition throughout her life but wasn’t formally identified until 2020. While vacationing in Cephalonia, Greece, in 2022, a swim with her accomplice escalated into one of her most harrowing OCD episodes.

After heading out into the water, Daniella panicked that she would not have the option to make it back to shore, yet even after her accomplice, 34-year-old Alex Hickman, safely guided her back, her thoughts took full control.

Daniella was convinced she was in the afterlife for roughly 4 days of her trip and continued to query her own existence for months afterward.

Her OCD also left her believing she did not love her household, inflicting her to concern being around them in case she harmed them or others.

Now working as an OCD recovery coach, Daniella is talking out about the fact of “pure OCD,” where victims expertise intense inner compulsions and intrusive ideas slightly than outwardly seen behaviors.

She said: “I went quite far out and suddenly panicked that I wouldn’t make it back. I called to my partner and he had to come and get me and we swam back to the beach.”

“But after that I became convinced I had died. I genuinely thought I was in the afterlife and didn’t know it.”

“I was pinching myself to check if I was real. It felt completely real, like I’d crossed over into something else.

“Even though I knew I had OCD at that level, it still felt true. That’s how highly effective it may be.”

Daniella has battled symptoms since childhood, dating back as far as she can recall.

She says she has always considered herself a terrible person, believing this was something everyone experienced.

As time went on, her condition deteriorated, at one point consuming every waking moment of her day and leaving her completely unable to function.

Daniella, speaking to Talk to the Press, said: “It’s like having a parasite in entrance of your mind. It latches onto whatever scares you the most and convinces you it is real.

“Up until my diagnosis I didn’t have a single second of peace. I couldn’t leave the house, I just believed everything my mind was telling me.

“I could not see my household, my OCD would persuade me I did not love them at all, and I would continually fear I would do one thing terrible, because it made me consider I was evil.”

Daniella wrestled with several distinct manifestations of the disorder, among them morality OCD, suicide OCD, and an intense fear of harming those around her.

She explains that her mind would construct false realities so persuasive that she was unable to separate them from actual events.

She said: “If somebody told me I’d harm somebody and the police were coming, I would have believed them, even if I had hundreds of evidence I hadn’t performed something.

“You completely lose trust in your own mind.

“Sometimes I would sit on the couch and need to get up, but my OCD would inform me if I moved one inch, one thing dangerous would occur, and so I would keep there sometimes for an hour, not ready to transfer.”

At her lowest point, Daniella became terrified of everyday activities, including venturing outside or being by herself.

She explained: “I was scared to stroll down the highway in case I threw myself in entrance of a car. I could not be alone because I did not trust where my thoughts would go.

“The issue was that being around people triggered it too, so there was nowhere that felt safe.”

A central side of her OCD was the phobia that she was “losing her mind” or struggling from psychosis.

She recalled: “I thought I was going mad, I’d think, am I hallucinating, do I need to be locked up?

“It genuinely felt like I was in psychosis.

“That’s a really common OCD theme and it feels completely real.

“If a police car went past the home, I would suppose they were coming to lock me up.”

Despite battling these issues since childhood, Daniella remained silent about her symptoms until her late 20s, when she hit rock bottom and received an OCD diagnosis in 2021.

Through support from her GP, medication, and subsequently private therapy, she gradually started to heal.

Today, she describes her life as completely transformed.

She reflected: “I was a shell of a human. I could not eat or sleep and I could not operate. Now I have my own business, I live with my accomplice, and I can get pleasure from life again.

“The thoughts are still there sometimes but I know what they are.” Since uncovering a huge online neighborhood of people going through comparable challenges, Daniella has established an Instagram web page and teaching business to offer help to others.

She said: “I found out I had OCD in 2021, and it changed my life. I couldn’t believe it though, I have a degree in psychology and have done many courses on it too, but the awareness is so bad.”

Daniella also harbors hopes of changing into a mom sometime, a prospect that OCD once precipitated her to dread.

She said: “A big reason my partner and I don’t have a child is because I was afraid to have one.

“It made me query how I may ever look after a little one. What if it latched onto them, what if I believed I would do one thing terrible to the child?

“It definitely delayed that part of my life, but it’s still something I really want.”

She now aspires to use her expertise to help others really feel less remoted.

Daniella said: “At my worst I felt truly hopeless, like there was no way out and I’d be stuck like that forever.

“But there may be a means out. You haven’t got to consider every thought that comes into your thoughts.

“If you think you have OCD, you probably might just do. Research it and get checked, it will change your life for the better.”