Has anyone here been cured by OCD through medication?

[Guest Meee]

I have been taking Prozac and Seroquel (and a few others whose name I can't remember)for 14 years and it has controlled and decreased my OCD slowly.Will there be a day I can come off the medication for good?

[Ashley]

Honestly, It is highly unlikely unless you are having psychological therapy to treat the OCD. I am not sure the meds do anything other than manage the anxiety that OCD causes. So if your only treatment for OCD is meds, I wont say they wont work for you, but I would be highly surprised if meds alone work.

[Tez]

I take citalopram at 40mg daily plus olanzapine at 10mg nightly. Medication has over the years had a beneficial effect on my mental health and my ability to resist compulsions. And it has controlled the deep pits of depression I used to get, so I am quite happy with my medication. I would however, like to make yet further progress so I am going to ask my GP if she can make a referral to either an NHS or a private psychiatrist to see how we can move forward, and if I can benefit from more treatment.

I also find OCD-UK a great source of strength in dealing with my symptoms.

:original:

[PolarBear]

I have not seen anyone post on the forum that they have been 'cured' by meds. A few of us (and I stress the word 'few') have had a remarkable response to medications. A good chunk of people see improvements in overall anxiety, allowing them to tackle their OCD through CBT easier. Some people seem to have no positive comments to say about meds.

Although I had a wonderful response to meds, I was still left with many obsessions bothering me consistently. For those I tackled them with CBT/ERP.

[Ashley]

There is no cure for OCD. I truly hope that one day there will be, for it is a cruel disease. That said, medications can be highly beneficial in treating the illness. Thinking myself pretty healthy, I recently went off antidepressants completely. Big mistake. I fell into a pit of depression for about two months. Back on the pills (Paroxetine/Paxil), I'm feeling much better and can do what I should have been doing before, getting good CBT and ERP to help my recovery. All these things--meds, therapy, and a healthy lifestyle--are key to managing our OCD. Good luck!

I am not totally sure I agree with some of that I am afraid.

Cure is a debate point we have had on the forum a lot, but to say there is no cure is wrong. We have some members of our charity who are 100% symptom free after specialist OCD therapy and have remained so for many years, some have spoken at our events over the years too. So whilst there is no guarantee everyone will be cured, for some they are.

For others therapy helps them recover to regain control of their life, they may still have OCD but they recovery well enough to not allow OCD to dictate or significantly impact on them.

I am loathe to agree that medications treat OCD too, I don't think they do. Meds are a good tool to help some manage the anxiety and symptoms of OCD but other than that they don't treat the OCD. I describe medication to be a tool, not a treatment.

[Caramoole]

Oops.....I think that Ashley & I have both removed a duplicate post at the same time leaving neither.

Fortunately Sodovka's post is quoted within Ashleys.

Apologies Sadovska

[Ashley]

Oops.....I think that Ashley & I have both removed a duplicate post at the same time leaving neither.

Fortunately Sodovka's post is quoted within Ashleys.

Apologies Sadovska

Oops, first time in 10-years we have done that... we will now take ourselves off to bang our heads together and figure out a protocol not to do it again.

[dubs]

No, because as soon as you stop taking the tablets you drift back.

[Caramoole]

I am loathe to agree that medications treat OCD too, I don't think they do. Meds are a good tool to help some manage the anxiety and symptoms of OCD but other than that they don't treat the OCD. I describe medication to be a tool, not a treatment.

.......and I hate to keep banging that drum but medication isn't always a good tool for all, not even for treating anxiety. There can be significant side effects both physical and mental and also problems withdrawing from medication. Do the research, listen to the advice, appraise the situation realistically and if it helps, wonderful. However there are some for whom it doesn't help, who suffer adversely and yet are encouraged to continue taking it for years, which is counter-productive

[whitebeam]

In my case, I do believe that it was the right meds that made the difference and enabled my recovery.

It wasn't an overnight cure....I wasn't what I would call 'well' for probably another 5 years. However, within a short time of starting taking these meds, I had relief from the intense anxiety and was able to begin to try to resist the compulsions which I had previously been unable/refused to resist.

I am still taking the meds (10 years on) I haven't stopped taking them as I am worried that, should I do so, I may slide backwards. I don't think it would come back as I have, at times, missed meds for up to a couple of weeks and had no ill-effects...but, as I don't have any adverse reaction to the meds, i don't see any reason to stop taking them.

[Guest Heryn!]

I was thinking about this a couple of nights ago.

Personally, I know my medication is really quite vital for me to cope with life, and to cope with the anxiety that obsessions and compulsions throw at me. Fluoxetine really helps me to 'not care' and it's for the better.

I do realise though that my medication does not necessarily stop the urge to perform compulsions, or the intrusive thoughts - it dampens them down quite a bit, but doesn't stop them altogether. I suppose that's where I need to implement techniques for it.

Edited July 22, 2015 by Heryn!

[PolarBear]

My we have this debate a lot. I am one that believes medications did have an impact on the frequency and severity of obsessions. I have to admit, however, that at the time I was starting to take medications, I got seriously educated on the disorder, what makes it tick, and how it is treated and I began working on rudimentary CBT (so far as I could go on my own). I then went on to take a CBT/ERP course and really got into being proactive about handling my OCD. So the question for me is how much of that was due to meds and how much was due to education and hard work on my part. I may never know.

[Handy]

Meds are not a cure, but waterwings.

[Sodovka]

Thanks to the administrators for responding to my post and not letting it be completely deleted. I can see that we have different perspectives on some of these issues. It's fine with me if you disagree with mine, but I hope you will permit me to openly share my own experiences on this forum. I promise to do so respectfully.

That said, I feel pretty strongly about both of these issues. I have done ERP treatment pretty extensively and my OCD never has never gone away 100%. I am frankly skeptical that anyone actually eliminates their OCD tendencies completely, but I'm glad to hear some people feel they have done that. On the topic of medication, perhaps I am only treating my underlying depression with it, but I know that if I stop taking it, as I have three times in my adult life, I will become profoundly depressed and that will trigger my OCD. For me, the side effects of antidepressants are insignificant compared to the side effects of unmanageable depression and comorbid OCD.

Not sure this is what is going on but it looks like your organization has quite different views from the main OCD organization here in the United States, the IOCDF.

[Ashley]

I have done ERP treatment pretty extensively and my OCD never has never gone away 100%.

ERP or CBT? The two are completely different, and in my experience ERP is not the solution, it is only part of the overall treatment package that needs to come from both cognitive and behavioural work.

Not sure this is what is going on but it looks like your organization has quite different views from the main OCD organization here in the United States, the IOCDF.

Well that's because we are not the IOCF They are health professional led, we are patient led.

I do believe there are cultural differences between how we view OCD between the UK and the US. In this country access to therapy is much easier and freely available, so there is less dependency on medication. I get the impression that in the US because therapy is a lot harder to access there is more of a drug culture and reliance on meds. Again culturally in the US ERP is pushed, where here we push CBT.

[Legend]

Im fully recovered , without medications.

[Claire1704]

Hi all,

This is a good and important debate, in my opinion.

To me, the question to answer is 'what is cure?'

In my experience people often feel that to be cured of OCD, they'll need to stop having thoughts that cause distress. It seems that the thought itself is evidence of disorder and therefore in order for a person to be cured of the disorder, the thoughts must stop. However the thought is just a thought, and the disorder comes from the reaction we give it (I.e the significance we attach and any compulsions that might follow). In my experience, there is no such thing as an OCD thought. Thoughts are perfectly normal, despite how horrible they can be. The thought doesn't need to change, but your reaction to it does.

I don't want to make assumptions about you Legend, but I'm assuming that you're as likely as the next person to have a really horrible thought or worry, that has the potential to cause distress. However I would guess that as an ex sufferer, you don't attach significance to the thought, and it doesn't cause anxiety in the way it once did.

I facilitate a support group an say to each new member "if your OCD can continue to improve, why can't it it can continue to improve until it's better?'.

I think medication is a good tool in many circumstances and definitely has its place. However I've had many health professionals say to me that it's not appropriate when you're treating OCD in isolation, my psychiatrist specifically told me that it would be inappropriate for me, as I had no symptoms of any other problem like depression. Also I've heard Professor Salkovskis say that when medication has been useful for patients who have OCD, it's been in conjunction with good therapy.

[Legend]

Great post Claire

I discussed this at last weeks central London support group , although the term cure wasn't used, the topic was is OCD beatable !!

I don't really care what word is used , cure, beatable etc what I do know is one can get over OCD without any OCD interference, that is to rid oneself of an illness

Do I get intrusive thoughts ? Yes but not in the same criteria of what a OCD sufferer gets , I wouldn't know what an intrusive thought is these days , they are no different to the over 11million I have !!! That's the difference

Interesting I met a lady on recovery that eve, she is nearly there in fact, and I could relate to the point she is at, many weeks free, and if it rears its head she heads in the direction of fear , not away from it

Meds or not,for many CBT works if you put the efforts in , and one can go on and lead a good life

Legend

Edited July 23, 2015 by Legend

[Legend]

on a footnote, i think the term intrusive thoughts , places a lot of importance onto the ocd , in the sense that people say to me , do you get intrusive thoughts

still as a non sufferer, leans towards looking out for them , kind of approach ?

[Yrrow]

I have always wondered whether a non-sufferer is still actively working on maintaining their progress. And do they feel there is much likelihood at any point (such as stressful circumstances) of relapse? Essentially is is more like remission or does it feel more curative? Just curious.

[Legend]

I have always wondered whether a non-sufferer is still actively working on maintaining their progress. And do they feel there is much likelihood at any point (such as stressful circumstances) of relapse? Essentially is is more like remission or does it feel more curative? Just curious.

From what ive ascertained yrrow over the 10 years of helping/awareness etc i think each persons recovery is unique to a sense, some make really great recoverys , without the need need to maintain , some free for long periods without any issues, others do have blips, or a setback after being free, but if they are able to implement cbt techniques quickly , with help of therapist or alone , it can be nipped in bud quickly

Over the last 10 years ive had some traumatic things happen, stressful events, but no indications of ocd what so ever

[Yrrow]

From what ive ascertained yrrow over the 10 years of helping/awareness etc i think each persons recovery is unique to a sense, some make really great recoverys , without the need need to maintain , some free for long periods without any issues, others do have blips, or a setback after being free, but if they are able to implement cbt techniques quickly , with help of therapist or alone , it can be nipped in bud quickly

Over the last 10 years ive had some traumatic things happen, stressful events, but no indications of ocd what so ever

Thank you for your response. That makes sense that it's unique to the individual, but it's encouraging to hear that it's not an everyday burden anymore for some. And that is so wonderful that you have had no setbacks for 10 years!

[Legend]

Thank you for your response. That makes sense that it's unique to the individual, but it's encouraging to hear that it's not an everyday burden anymore for some. And that is so wonderful that you have had no setbacks for 10 years!

keep travelling in the direction of the opposite of what ocd demands

[Markie1974]

Legend , specifically , what techniques were helpful for

you ?? What OCD themes did you deal with ?

[Guest doris]

When I first got my OCD I tried to address it purely through CBT methods. I had a great book as a guide but couldn't afford a therapist. At first it came under control but then went bezerk again and finally and reluctantly went on meds (Prozac). That made me jittery so after about a year came off and was fine for a while before I began slipping and then had my worst bout ever. Back on meds (Zoloft this time.)

I wish therapy was free here, as I find it so hard to do the cbt and erp stuff on my own which is stopping me from getting better faster. From posts on here I get the impression that it is free in England--is that true?

I am new to this forum and maybe this wasn't best place to put this post--I'll try to get more familiar with board altogether.

Thanks for being here!