Hi ladies, sorry if this is quite personal/tmi, but I have noticed that my OCD appears to be worse when I am on my period. For my period week, I have noticed that I wash my hands/change my clothes/do rituals more often than the rest of the month.
I was wondering if anyone else had noticed a difference whilst on their period or is it just a coincidence and I am putting two and two together.
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No, it's no accidental coincidence! It's something I too noticed, though it's a few years since I had a period. My OCD always got worse with PMS!
I notice that you refer to washing hands and putting on clean clothes. I think many women are more conscious of hygiene during a period. This is natural but it may have been reinforced by cultural beliefs that menstruation is somehow dirty. It isn't, of course, but that doesn't necessarily stop us being extra careful with cleanliness, and that could well make contamination OCD worse.
But in any case, no matter what form your OCD takes, hormonal swings that make a difference to how you feel are amplified by OCD.
There are ways of mitigating the effects of the menstrual cycle. The contraceptive pill can balance things out to some extent, and taking a vitamin B6 can also help.
Thanks. Before my contamination OCD (developed it after the birth of my son, so only had it for about 19 months) before he was born I was fine and never noticed any differences when on my period, never even had PMT/moods (that I or my husband noticed)I was on the pill prior to us trying to conceive. I have not gone back on it as we are unsure if we want another child or not. If we do decide to have another I we didn't want to have to wait for the pill to get back out my system as it adds time on conceiving. So have not started taking it again until we make our final decision on a 2nd baby. I did wonder if the pill made any difference, but of course since I did not have OCD prior, I have nothing to compare it to.
I shall look into vit b6. I am currently taking fluoxetine (only started this last month) and only a low 20mg daily dose, so will see how I get on with that and research into the b6 too. Thank you for the info.
Hi My daughter has contamination ocd and this is something I have noticed and can predict the day she will start her period as the day before things will disgust her more and she is less able to tolerate things and will wash hands , change etc more.
Some one had previously told us to try vitamin B6, we haven’t yet but is a definite one for me to purchase in the future.
I wish You well .
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