Somatic OCD help

Hi everyone,

Ive recently been struggling with my overthinking breathing. From the research I have done this is a sign of somatic ocd. I have not been officially diagnosed but this problem is really effecting my everyday life and would appreciate any advice on how to get better. Im not sure what the next steps in recovery should be. Im also concerned about the costs of therapy/treatment - im not sure what the if NHS would provide free care for such a problem.

Thank you

[helloworld22]

I’ve experienced it twice in my life, a few months each time. Worst when trying to go to sleep: I don’t want to think about my breathing, but there’s nothing to distract me. If I don’t make myself breathe then I’ll actually stop breathing, and so I have to think about it to make it happen. SSRI medication, Zoloft (sertraline) in my case, solved it. You use high dose levels for OCD, in my case 150 mg per day, while the standard recommended maximum dose is 200 mg. It took maybe 4 to 8 weeks to disappear.

[Hidden in reply to helloworld22]

Hi,

Thank you for the reply, I have some questions:

Are there any negative side effects of Zoloft?

And how long did you have to take the medication for?

How did you get the prescription?

Are you fully recovered now?

Would really appreciate answers

[helloworld22 in reply to Hidden]

As I understand it, most people don’t experience a lot of side effects from Zoloft. However many people experience some dry mouth, I do. Really no others for me.After something like 4 to 8 weeks the breathing issue was completely, completely gone. This was from the start of the medication so that included the ramping up time.

I have other, more intrusive OCD issues I deal with. I plan to stay on the medication forever unless better medications, or new, different treatments worth exploring come along. I’m also doing cognitive behavioral therapy.

Psychiatrists can prescribe it. Family physicians can also prescribe it but they need to be educated in the fact that larger doses of SSRI’s are used for OCD, and that they need to be tapered up.

Many SSRI’s can help with OCD; sometimes patients may need to try more than one to find one that works for them.

[Hidden]

Thank you for the reply

I will try to book an appointment with my GP to explore the options available. I’ve also been struggling with overthinking swallowing, i feel like I have to manually swallow every few seconds and manually breath. Hopefully I will be able to find options that will make this better.

[madame-souris in reply to Hidden]

If you're looking into getting help and taking meds, I highly recommend seeing an actual psychiatrist, not just a GP (though depending on how your healthcare works, you may need your GP to make a referral first.) GPs are not the best at handling psychiatric concerns and often don't know the intricacies of prescribing psychoactive meds. Some SSRI's, for example, can cause symptoms to get worse before they improve, and most SSRI's don't take effect for the first month or so, so you may need an additional, faster-acting medication temporarily, until the SSRI's get into your system and then up to a therapeutic dose. Also, a psychiatrist is likely to be better able to gauge the best meds for you (different formulations vary a *lot*. Zoloft is not wholly interchangeable with Prozac, or Paxil, or Busparone, etc. Each has different types of effects and side effects.) and will be better at detecting any comorbidities since OCD may also come along with ADD, autism, etc. in some people, and some people find better relief with low-dose new-gen antipsychotics in conjunction with their SSRI's (made a world of difference for me). So there are a lot of factors to consider, and these just scratch the surface. It seems many GP's just throw their favorite brand of SSRI at any problem and see if it sticks, so to speak. I kind of think it comes from our overall lack of taking mental health as seriously as physical health, and it's unfortunate.

[Hidden]

I would ideally like to see a psychiatrist but on the NHS website it says I will need to get a referral from my GP first. I will try to explain my situation to my GP as best as I can and hopefully they will provide a referral.