Hey folks, I’m just wondering if anyone else here has OCD and what drugs/treatments have worked for you?
I’ve only been diagnosed with OCD recently (on top of the scz-affective), and it’s something I really struggle with, I just didn’t realise what it was until my new psychiatrist picked up on it. My mood and psychotic symptoms are about 75% under control, but the obsessive thoughts are killing me. It’s not so much the rituals with me, it’s the constant unrelenting thoughts that I have said or done something bad/wrong/offensive/embarrassing or otherwise inappropriate. Every time I have any social contact, face to face or online or by text/email/phone, it results in hours and days of obsessive thoughts.
Any advice on dealing with this would be hugely appreciated. My psychiatrist told me that antidepressants are the main drugs used, I’m already on 50mg sertraline and she doesn’t want to increase it because of my tendency to become manic, so I feel like I’m in a catch 22.
I take 20mg Paroxetine which works very well for obsessive thoughts.
It may change your personality so that you become emotionless and also cause sexual dysfunction.
unfortunately i havent found anything to really kill my ocd. ive been on three ssri’s (luvox, zoloft, prozac) and they help with other things but not so much with my ocd. i wanted to try anafranil as there is at least one study showing it to have superior efficacy to ssri’s in ocd treatment but my nurse practitioner wasn’t up for it. being that you have the potential for a manic episode, im honestly not sure what they could give you to treat the ocd symptoms. ive seen a study that showed buprenorphine helped with treatment refractory ocd but thats no where near standard care and i cannot imagine a doctor prescribing an opioid for a mental health issue, even if it helped them ultimately, because of the atmosphere surrounding opioids…thats probably not helpful, im just a medication nerd
I have OCD/Tourette’s. I control it using biofeedback therapy. Antidepressants make me hallucinate, so nonmedical treatments were the only solution for me. I wear a sensor on my forehead that measures the thermal output of my prefrontal cortex. Then, I watch an interesting movie. Movies are designed to shut down your logical reasoning in your prefrontal cortex, and activate your emotions in your limbic system. When I get too engaged in the movie, my thermal output drops, and the movie pauses. In order to make it play again, I have to focus on calmly reactivating my logical thinking. The trick is that I have to stay calm. If I get upset or frustrated, my logical thought doesn’t activate. Over time, this has taught me to stay calm and logical during anxiety-provoking situations, when my OCD or Tourette’s would be triggered.
I’ve been doing this for twelve years now. It takes twenty minutes, once a week. The results are immediate, but it gets better over time. The only downside is that it isn’t covered by insurance, and each session costs roughly $100. Some practitioners offer financial aid to patients who can’t afford treatment. I eventually just bought my own machine, and now it’s free for me to keep doing it. I’ve had the machine for 8 years.
I have OCD and great problems with my anger, OCD make me exaggerate anything and Ive been bullied because of that. Anyways, like you I found a way to cope with it, but it doesn’t work always
No best. There really isn’t one best medication. Typically OCD requires treatment with medication that enhances serotonergic activity in the brain. Most often this involves either a serotonin specific reuptake inhibitor or Anafranil. I am unsure what the “unrelenting thoughts” you describe represent - anxious rumination? If mania, lithium is serotonergic. Benzodiazapines are very effective for anxiety but have high risks for abuse and dependence.
Wow, thanks @Ninjastar, that’s something I’ve never heard of before, I’ll look into this, it sounds really interesting. I’d literally try anything for relief from this.
Yeah, it’s a constant bombardment with unwanted unpleasant thoughts that I have offended someone, other times its hours and hours of worrying about all the problems of the world and everything that is wrong on this planet. I feel like my brain never stops, I’m constantly either fighting my own thoughts or getting too wrapped up in them. Will google Anafranil, thanks.
I’m on the waiting list for CBT, don’t know how long it’ll be though. I never really believed talking therapies could work, but so many people here have made positive comments I’m beginning to see I may have been wrong.
The thing with cbt is it goes way beyond usual talking therapy and provides you with a set of mental skills, kind of. Teaches you a lot about how to deal with your own thoughts and better control your reactions to them.