OCD for 35 years-ugh

[Oloveoil]

I have been diagnosed with ocd many years ago. I have tried many medicines but quit cold turkey 3 years ago. Bad side effects. Now ocd is back pretty strong. It went away for months. Mostly worrying about detail things like is the oil cap on tight enough, did I put the light bulb in tight enough, I touched dirty oil, always worrying about dumb little stuff. You can’t stop it becomes part of your life. Which is miserable. I do not want to get back on meds but I may not have a choice. Hoping someone beat this without any medication. If so I’m wondering if it was with therapy? Now I’m worrying about a little bubble in the wall paper I put up. There was a bubble previously but I wore out the paper so bad from trying to fix, I had to replace it.

thanks for any insight…

[SCC1]

Hi. It is not good to stop meds by yourself and especially not cold turkey. A Dr should be the one to decide that no matter how you are feeling.Did your OCD return shortly after you stopped taking them or later on? If meds work, a person feels better because of them. When someone goes off meds because they feel better, that's sometimes when the problems/symptoms start again, whether it be side effects or the illness "returning". Of course, therapy can be used in conjunction with meds (or by itself), but always consult a physician to make sure things are being monitored and that you can do things safely.

[Oloveoil in reply to SCC1]

Hello

I quit taking my medication due to feeling numb, no energy or lack of feelings. The OCD started a year later after quitting the medication which is very strange. Like you said I should have not went off of the medication without consulting my doctor. That said I plan on getting some therapy help and to stay off the medication. OCD has no rhyme or reason, it comes and goes but I plan on looking into ERP therapy that I’m seeing on this forum.

Thanks

[Sallyskins]

Although medication helps a lot of people - I am one it does help - it doesn't suit some people. But medication is only part of the treatment. The real treatment is CBT or cognitive behavioural therapy.

Medication, if it works well for the patient, can certainly dampen down the OCD and make the CBT easier to do. But CBT is all right on its own.

CBT does involve allowing yourself to feel uncomfortable for a while. And if you feel too uncomfortable or the feelings of discomfort persist, you may give in to the compulsions.

But at least give it a go - give the uncomfortable feelings a chance to subside by themselves. I know how niggling it can be - feeling that you didn't do something 'right', or feeling 'dirty' - or the bubble in the wallpaper. It can get under your skin and really make things so difficult you can't concentrate or move on.

The trick is to keep on with the CBT - make it a part of your day-to-day life. The problem is that OCD is a fluctuating conditions and you are likely to have relapses interspersed with good stretches. Practising CBT makes the relapses less likely - and easier to cope with if they occur.

A course of therapy with someone who does CBT for OCD might help. If this is difficult - cost, or waiting lists, or no therapist nearby etc - then how about a book that has CBT exercises you can adapt to your own forms of OCD? My suggestions are Overcoming Obsessive Compulsive Disorder or The OCD Workbook - both excellent and helpful - but there are lots of others. Just make sure they use CBT techniques.

[Natureloverpeace]

I wouldn’t advise doing this . This is part of what gets people with OCD into trouble. We tend to focus on the worst case scenario and magnify it even though the worst case scenario is highly unlikely. This will just feed the OCD cycle.

This reply was in response to a comment by a former member who was was advising the author to focus on the worst case scenario to deal with intrusive thoughts. That comment has been deleted.

[Natureloverpeace]

The beginning steps to OCD recovery before even doing the actual ERP is to understand the OCD cycle, what maintains it and what breaks it.

[Natureloverpeace]

Therapy can be expensive, I get it but that doesn’t have to stop you. ocdchallenge.com is a free program put together by an OCD specialist. iocdf.org is an awesome resource. You can learn a lot from their free livestreams as well. There isn’t a cure for OCD yet but you put it into remission like alcoholics do with alcoholism. The OCD is still there so an active and ongoing recovery strategy is vital. You can learn the difference between your voice and the voice of OCD. You can live a life according to your values despite the lies that OCD tells you.

[beth196]

ocd will never let u win. I need 80 mg of Prozac. No choice and I still use erp.