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OCD - ?end of Savlon - what do we do?!


Guest PhilipD99

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Guest PhilipD99

Well hello – I have joined OCD-UK and paid the initial subscription, being a sufferer myself.

Wait for it: I was once a Consultant Psychiatrist, though had to retire early in 2000 after a Pituitary Tumour, and my OCD problems, which started after the outbreak of AIDS, have ticked over reasonably all right and are largely of the contamination type, for 30 + years with the help of Savlon products and I am now long retired. But now all that seems under threat with some commercial developments and if I can’t get my cleanliness to my satisfaction I won’t sleep properly. I am trying to find other suitable products. I don’t think I am up to your Nottingham conference!

The main reason I wanted to start a new thread is to alert members to the threat to our well being caused by NOVARTIS, to whom the SAVLON brand had been sold by Johnson and Johnson, who are discontinuing many of our trusted products and presently leading to some huge buying panics and inflated prices.

Philip

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Hello............

Welcome to membership.

I have OCD thoughts not contamination but I have used Savlon if I get a cut.

As you will know treatment for contamination issues is expisure and response prevention and your - classic - statement "if I can't get my claenliness to my satisfaction I won't sleep properly" suggests that if you would engage with a graded hierarchy of exposure you really might be able to tackle and face up to your compulsions to clean.

My wife and I have no compulsion to clean we do it when we feel like it yet are perfectly fit and well.

As you no doubt know your fears are driven by an exagerrated threat to a minimum risk. Might the lack of supply of your desired product prove the impetus to really engage now with that ERP? With OCD there is short turn pain for long term gain - a few nights of dusturbed sleep against the opportunity to break free maybe 80% from san overpowerng long-standing compulsion?

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Guest LauraMac

Maybe another way to look at this is as an opportunity to try exposure exercises? I don't know the specific product you are using but I would assume there are alternatives on the market? I assume it's antiseptic type stuff you're talking of, maybe it's the opportunity now to break the pattern of using such products to wash etc. We know that very strong products like that are bad long term because they destroy good bacteria, cause skin dryness, then cracks appear and they leave your hands more open to infection etc. Those products are safety behaviour products and I myself know are hard to stop using, but the goal should be to cut them right down/get rid completely. I've got rid completely of my use of all types of antiseptic/detol type stuff but still battle with alcohol gel use. It's a tough road but I feel much better for not using them.

I have contamination ocd myself and after CBT and a lot of hard work, ive helped my handwashing amount hugely. It can be done. Have you ever tried to cut down on hand washing and tackle the OCD at all? Sitting with that uneasiness is tough but in my opinion it's worth it to get better. Have you ever had treatment?

The sleep problems will pass if you sit with uneasiness. Graded exposure will be what helps this.

Edited by LauraMac
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Guest imalright

Philip

I agree with Laura - the first thing I thought when I read your post is.....this seems like the perfect opportunity to get out of OCD.

You mention that the purpose of your post is to warn people of a threat to their wellbeing due to the threat of losing the Savlon product. This is completely irrational (we're all capable of that - me included - that's the nature of what we have).

Rather than using the forum to 'alert' people about this.....you could also use the forum to get support on breaking free from your OCD. I don't feel that 'alerting' people about an irrational threat to their wellbeing is helpful to you or others xx

Your post seems to be using the forum to support an obsession (i.e - it's not the OCD, it's the damn people at savlon who have sold themselves that's the problem!' Perhaps start with recognising that it's the OCD :)

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:welcome: to the forum. Thanks for your honesty and Thank-You for showing that regardless of position or knowledge, OCD is very persuasive and infinitely powerful. It's not unbeatable though, certainly in terms of reducing compulsions and managing it well.

Caramoole :)

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Guest itsnotmeitsmyocd

Hi,

Sorry to interject, however you're not actually correct ref Novartis/Savlon/johnson and Johnson. Savlon is simply a brand name, both Novartis and J & J are pharmaceutical companies who are "in bed" with each other. They both hold licenses to sell the many sub brands of savlon, and these differ depending on which sub brand and country they hold licensing / distribution rights to.

You have had really good advice from the posters above about compulsions and obsessions. Are you able to differentiate between the two? If you are then i am sure we can help support and advise you. As has been mentioned if you can treat this obsession as just that, and see it as an opportunity to practise an exposure.

Wishing you all the best.

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Guest PhilipD99

Well rationally I know what the posters have said and agree with it! But as I'm an old man ( 63 with many physical conditions ) I'd really rather tick along as I am until I go to my coffin! Just some everyday examples - I hate handshakes but they are now a major part of Christian worship. I carry a tube of Savlon cream to use in the toilet of the Church Hall after the Service. I also carry a Savlon spray for lesser encounters. I am so glad that I have been enabled to share these things as I have never discussed them in detail before.

I know full well the psychological theory of all this but I was hoping to take my present behaviour to my grave or Nursing Home. I don't know if I can cope with the challenge you pose.

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But as I'm an old man ( 63 with many physical conditions )

How very dare you :( Old at 63??? Never!!

I don't know if I can cope with the challenge you pose.

You could always try....Do your restrictive behaviours/compulsions eradicate all of your doubt/anxiety?

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Guest jayjay89

Hi, welcome to the forum!

I sometimes (well, usually) feel the same, that I've reduced my OCD enough and I can live with what is left until I die, or its not worth trying to improve my OCD, it will be to hard, stressful, upsetting etc. But, on a really good day, I can see that even though I can convince myself it barely affects me, I am still accepting less from life and myself, than I should be.

I have the same problem with handshakes. I absolutely HATE them. But I have to do them all the time at work. Last year I had to go to the bathroom after every handshake and scrub my hands clean - my colleagues must have thought I had a bladder problem and surely wondered why I barely had any skin left on my hands haha. This year I managed to get rid of the compulsion to clean my hands afterwards - I still HATE shaking hands. It still makes me anxious, I still don't want to do it, but scrubbing my hands doesn't make me feel any better any faster - I think you are going to be pushed into the same exposure, maybe you could try and aim to cut out the compulsion?

Anyway, goodluck and happy to have you here :)

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Hi,

I am 64 and newly retired.

I am also very knowledgeable yet still struggling ( and currently kn theraoy again) proving - as is your experience - just how challenging OCD is to face up to. How people cope depends on so many factors and - yes - includes other health issues.

I appreciate your position re your contamination issues; one of the great joys for me inmy life has been my ability to relate to younger and olfer generations other cultures and females. This forum provides great opportunities to do that.

We are very open in our encouragement to people to seek to tackle their OCD,, pkease don't hold thst agaknsg us - the overriding theme of the community is to encourage show care and show sympayhy when warranted. My sister is 67 with mind games type OCD and is very physically incapacited yet she works to her therapy and keeps busy; she does this by being active in her local church andtesching music to youngsters., as does her husband

Perhaps through your membership here and encouragement from those of all ages nationalities and creeds (Laura is 20 and from Northern Ireland, jayhay around 24 and from New Zealand),you may find the motivation t o work a little on those compulsions.

Welcome again

Roy

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Guest PhilipD99

Morning and greetings new friends! When I saw that the internet price of Savlon Blue had suddenly escalated from it's normal £2 a bottle to nearly £19 I thought hey there are other people like me out there!! It is so nice to be able to tell people of things I had only previously told my mother. Anyway for the time being long live Hibiscrub, which I know will not go out of production as every surgeon in Britain uses it every operating list, but it is only available mail order. It has the same sort of stuff as Savlon Blue but with a mild soap and at a higher concentration, and I used it in the dim and distant past as a junior doctor, and I have now evolved a procedure ( well the Psychologists would call it a " ritual " ) involving dipping a finger in a bowl of this stuff in the bathroom to get the desired concentration giving a small bubble on the surface.

Phew - I will not now have to kill myself but I was in a bit of a lather last night. Mind you because my tumour could have untreated caused blindness I did 14 years ago assemble a " suicide kit " of some tablets which I was prescribed as a routine after anyone who had had their skull opened and I know they would do the job and for 14 years they have been at the back of a drawer where I hope they will remain but they are an ejector switch from life if things ever get too much. At the moment I have a duty to my mother and God to stay on this Earth and not use the suicide pills. Otherwise I can't complain as with a very generous Pension settlement I got 15% off a normal Consultant Pension but I had worked for it!!

Edited by PhilipM
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Guest PhilipD99

I sometimes (well, usually) feel the same, that I've reduced my OCD enough and I can live with what is left until I die, or its not worth trying to improve my OCD, it will be to hard, stressful, upsetting etc. But, on a really good day, I can see that even though I can convince myself it barely affects me, I am still accepting less from life and myself, than I should be.

I have the same problem with handshakes. I absolutely HATE them.

Anyway, goodluck and happy to have you here :)

Thank you so much for that. We have a lot in common except that my work is finished.

I have used many forum websites before and think I recognise the software. I will get used to it though there are some differences from the last forum I used with this soxware?.

Edited by PhilipM
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I sometimes (well, usually) feel the same, that I've reduced my OCD enough and I can live with what is left until I die, or its not worth trying to improve my OCD, it will be to hard, stressful, upsetting etc. But, on a really good day, I can see that even though I can convince myself it barely affects me, I am still accepting less from life and myself, than I should be.

I have the same problem with handshakes. I absolutely HATE them.

Anyway, goodluck and happy to have you here :)

hi.

You insert a reply to a quote just underneath the text box of the post you are replying to, and inside the overall reply text box, like this.

It takes a while to get used to all the tricks and trades of the forums' software.

Are you proposing to reply to jayjay?

Kind regards

Roy

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Guest PhilipD99

Thanks taurean - I am an old hand at this soxware and other bulletin boards going back to before the public internet in the early 80s. I used my first computer in 1973.

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Guest nicolam381318

Hi, welcome to the forum. I have OCD with contamination fears too. I completely understand the intense anxiety and distress that it causes and the impact that it can have on daily life. However, I am trying as hard as I can to improve my situation, both for myself and my young family. There are times when everything gets too much and I struggle to see a way forward but I use the support from my family and the good people on here to get myself through those tough times. I was only diagnosed with OCD a year ago so I am fairly new to things myself but these forums have been invaluable to me in gaining a better understanding of my condition and how best to tackle it. I really hope that you can gain the same benefit from the vast amount of information and support that is available here.

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Guest lizinlondon

This time last year, I remember it well. With my OCD I was lucid. I had tipped over the edge. I could not go near a human being let alone shake hands. A year on. Having started CBT and accepting every handshake for around 6 months without decontaminating.....now I don't have a problem with handshakes. I do it and move on to the next part of my day. Repeated exposure does eventually work.

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Thanks taurean - I am an old hand at this soxware and other bulletin boards going back to before the public internet in the early 80s. I used my first computer in 1973.

Hey that is pretty good. I think I got started just as a user around late 70s but I do remember learning to use the telex machine.

My wife was the first to get seriously into computers as she worked for BT. But she stopped working around 25 years ago as she went deaf and we couldn't both cope with executive jobs, so she stayed at home and ran our home arrangements - she called herself the "home secretary" as I had my own work secretary at the time - she said I had 24-hour Secretarial support!

There are quite a number of us senior citizens on this forum - and as I say we have a good spread of ages domicile experiences, and as you would expect there are of course pretty equal numbers of both gender active on the forum.

I look forward to debate involving your goodself. As a new retiree who is currently suffering - a click on my picture will take you to my profile which explains some of my own problems - the forum has been especially useful to me recently, but my intention is to spend more time on non-OCD related matters and less on the forum - other than the members areas - going forward. I especially enjoy a number of hobbies. My interests include particularly creative writing photography, and gardening and visiting country houses with my wife, and I am doing this house up - engaging specialist workers with a view to us selling up and moving to the Midlands soon

I think we have onely had one other psychiatrist on the forum that I know of since I joined and he is not currently active, but it all helps in the overall pool of knowledge and experiences.

Edited by taurean
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Guest PhilipD99

Thank you very much taurean and to all the others who have helped me so much through this difficult night. I used to get Savlon liquid delivered by e- buying in 36 bottle quantities. Anyway Hibiscrub will have to come by delivery as it is not stocked retail and I will have to sort out a

procedure which at present includes dipping a finger in a bowl of Hibiscub. Procedures are what the Psychologists call theories and then rituals but it is that that gives me hope¬

More may well follow as I go back in my life.

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Guest PhilipD99

I've just had an email saying that my order for Hibiscrub has been delayed! I have got loads of the old Savlon but it is terrible that the actionof a small group of financiers can cause so much distress to the world. They have probably never seen a Savlon bottle!

Thank you very much for that. I have learnt about the really heavy stuff like css and JavaScript for what I call" weightlifting for " the brain for reasons after I ran out of things I wanted to do from the local University. I will get on to the Biography that I am promising in a Word eventually.

My life story is in Word and back used and I will deliver it to you sometime possibly as there is a lot to say before I move on.

Edited by PhilipM
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I've just had an email saying that my order for Hibiscrub has been delayed!

Not that I'm encouraging you to buy it ;) can't you get it at the chemist, I get it at there or at the vets (use it for my dogs if they get a cut or when my other half had cellulitis)

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Guest lizinlondon

In London you can buy it in Boots the chemist. Maybe called round your local chemists, they might be able to order it for you. Ditto, I should not be saying this to you!

"The End of Savlon" …… sounds like a biblical tragedy or a sci-fi movie :whistling:

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Guest LauraMac

I know full well the psychological theory of all this but I was hoping to take my present behaviour to my grave or Nursing Home. I don't know if I can cope with the challenge you pose.

I totally understand your fear. Handshakes used to be my nightmare. They terrified me, I would do anything to avoid them. When someone shook my I felt utter panic and a huge rise in temperature. I had to clean my hands immediately with alcohol gel. I just couldn't stand it. Now after challenging my OCD, I now I embrace handshakes and actually often greet people with a handshake myself now. It's been a huge change.

I think you deserve to get away from OCD, no one should have to live with it EVER. You shouldn't have to at all.

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I totally understand your fear. Handshakes used to be my nightmare. They terrified me, I would do anything to avoid them. When someone shook my I felt utter panic and a huge rise in temperature. I had to clean my hands immediately with alcohol gel. I just couldn't stand it. Now after challenging my OCD, I now I embrace handshakes and actually often greet people with a handshake myself now. It's been a huge change.

I think you deserve to get away from OCD, no one should have to live with it EVER. You shouldn't have to at all.

hi Laura,

I like your response here - and that was clearly likely to be all our views - as indeed it has been the view I have taken . I think maybe however we need further and better particulars on his OCD health and other issues story, and we can maybe offer more insight then in the light of more specific knowledge?

Clearly OCD is a problem here, sufficient for him not to feel up to fighting right now, and at his state of health and age - but other issues of health and having to stop practicing early must clearly have played their part.

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Guest PhilipD99

But back to topic when I touch something that I feel to be " contaminated " I feel a physical sensation exactly to that part of the body to lower than the dermatome which has got to be cortically neurologically based. When I was at Cambridge I was taught by some of the world's main most prominent scientists including one who got a Nobel Prise for discovering how nerves and muscles worked. But the feeling is so limited in area even if for a short time that is has to be Cortially mediated which puts it only 3 neurones from where it is felt: that puts it firmly: sensrory cortex, Thalamus, posterior Spinal Neurone and then on to the dermatome.

One helpful thing to mention to the administrator here is that the software is currently breaking words in the middle and I'm sure this was just a tick in a box when installing the software for this forum which I have used elsewhere.

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