PIP Claim- OCD and Social engagement

Hi,

I've just finished filling out my UC50 form with the guides and great help from others here and was hoping for some advice with starting a PIP claim.

After reading through other's stories and the guides I'm really concerned I have no chance of scoring on PIP. As far as I can see I think I can only score in "engaging with other people face to face" and possibly Planning and following journeys. My OCD affects me in many other ways and slows me down a lot in tasks and work but unlike the UC50 these questions don’t seem to cover any of that.

I totally avoid social situations with strangers due to my OCD and how triggering it is. It leaves me anxious for days afterwards if I do and I always need a long time to recover. I work from home and the only social contact I have is with my family and girlfriend. Even with them I am often triggered and can't socialize for too long at a time.

This also causes me to avoid traveling because I’m so often triggered with intense ocd and anxiety by being physically near other people, I will very rarely go out and need a lot of encouragement or prompting .

The thing is I am able to cope often if I'm accompanied by a family member in a situation like a quiet walk in the countryside for example, where I'm unlikely to see anyone. I can cope with a short walk in a crowded place but not for too long or it becomes overwhelming and I would need a lot of mental preparation for that situation before I could take that walk. Taking a bus or train to a workplace regularly would be next to impossible at this point though. I am able to go on journeys, but I almost always need someone with me or I will avoid it because of how much anxiety it gives me. I also need a lot of prompting before I will make a journey normally, or days to mentally prepare for it.

With social engagement I'm not sure of their definition of what cannot engage socially is. I can talk to my close family and girlfriend for periods of time but struggle to talk for too long as conversations often trigger my OCD and my anxiety builds until it becomes too draining. I will often avoid conversations because of this, I also find it hard to be too physically close to anyone for extended periods.

When it comes to strangers though I am pretty much unable to engage in any meaningful social engagement because of how incredibly strong my OCD is near other people, especially strangers. The rare times I have gone to shops if someone makes small talk with me I wont go back. Even phone calls fill me with dread and take me a long time to recover from. I am able to visit a doctor when needed but will put it off as much as I can.

According to the forms I'm not sure if I meet any points for social engagement though as I'm able to talk to my own family members, I was told in a previous question this probably wouldn't count against me, but I'm a bit worried after reading other peoples failed claims it will.

So I'm thinking if I’m lucky I might be able to score 4 points for frequently needing prompting to travel and 4 to 8 points on the social engagement section if they don’t hold talking to my family and girlfriend against me.

Wondering if anyone has scored points on these questions before and if they think my situation is likely to also? I'm really hesitant to go through the process of filling out more forms and stress of interviews if I barely have a chance.

Thanks

Hi Gordon,

Thanks for your reply, it does sometimes make preparing meals take longer but not generally things like dressing and basic functions. It used to always make preparing meals take a very long time but nowadys it doesn't affect me as often with meals specifically, I would say only a few days out of the week.

This is the problem I'm having though, whilst OCD has a huge debilitating impact on my ability to socailse and has left me bascially unable to work outside of my home, whilst also making complext tasks like my work take much longer than other people, it seems for the very specific criteria of PIP I'm having a hard time answering the questions.

It's upsetting as I know my OCD has a huge impact and causes me lots of delays in many other areas, but because It only occasionaly affects cooking and doesn't affect tasks like dressing it seems I'm basically disqualified from applying. Not even sure if I should try at this point, I don't want to have to take my case to a tribunal and have to physically travel to a court.