Dawnie

Hi loftylady I'm so sorry to hear of the distress which You both must be going through. I hope my children don’t suffer from OCD like I do. If it’s any comfort, I never wanted to take medication. I put it off for 3 yrs before I started taking an SSRI. I wish I had taken them sooner. I do feel the longer the suffering the longer the recovery. Nice guidelines state SSRI and CBT. However I had CBT without SSRI. But it didn’t work. Then I was lucky enough to have second lot of CBT while taking SSRI and the therapy started to kick in. The SSRI made the OCD tolerable. I’m not on any mood stabilisers but pretty sure they would help. I use exercise for my mood stabiliser and....... chocolate LOL. Taking medication is not something to be ashamed of and you can tell him that from me. Perhaps this is a control thing for him. OCD suffers can’t tolerate anxiety. Control is key. This is why I didn’t want to take meds for ages. I had to in the end. I was absolutely exhausted mentally and depressed and in a horrid horrid place. My entire life was OCD. I feel for him I really do. And hard for you seeing him go through it. Please be reassured it can get better. The biggest step is getting the right help and he would start to recover. I agree with Hal about getting in touch with Ashley. He seems easy going and got great advice. Best wishes xxxxxxxxxxx

Hi I have not used Facebook for this type of reason but see it being no problem. If it works for you and offers you support with people you trust then can only be a good thing. Go for it. Only a few people know about my OCD. I would be happy to discuss with anyone once I had trust in them and felt it may help their mental health. The hurtful nature of my thoughts makes it difficult for people to understands and that makes me think people would judge me for it. I’m beginning to be a bit more open about it but depends on who it is. If my kids grow up to be OCD then I would tell them everything they need to recover. But work colleagues/ friends maybe not. Only my Boss knows and my best friends/husband/mum. No one else. Xxx

I agree gbg. Anxiety gets bored and goes without you having to do anything. Trust yourself. Exspose yourself to it. And sit it out phil10. Beleive me, I’ve done this and it works. Be strong xxx

Hello hopingtorecover. I have 2 kids and they both vomit up regularly. I would use wet wipes to start then a good scrub and then leave it to dry on its own. I don’t have contamination OCD but rumination OCD. If I had an intrusion about my kids I would spend hours thinking about it. So I understand where you’re at with the amount of cleaning up you have done. It’s over with now. Maybe next time a quick clean up and tell yourself it’s good enough. Then do another helpful behaviour NOT compulsions. Hope this helps. It’s intresting to see how OCD works for different types of OCD but the techniques for dealing with it are the same. hope this helps? xxxx

Hello I find my OCD better as I am busy with stuff. I like busy but then don’t look after myself so usually crash in a few days. Mindfulness works for me as well as keeping myself as well as I can. Good diet and exercise. All this is fine if you can be consistent which I often struggle with. My GP told me to increase my SSRI in times of stress then reduce back down when calmer. (If you take them seek advice first from GP) Christmas is stressful for non OCD people I reckon. The cost/run up/ Xmas day/making sure you have everything/ Lots to do/busy time of year. Hope this helps? xxxxxxx

Hello thank you gbg/Steve m.w/daja/lost in time/taurean. This is a good technique. One of my therapists said to create a worry period during your day. Then you defer the thought till later. And then when you are at the time of your worry period if the thought is not bothering you then u can just move on. If the thought still bothers you then what I do is a thought chart using theory A - what OCD says OR theory B - what’s actually happening/alternative cognition. This technique is explained in the Break Free of OCD book. It’s good.

Yes I agree with this 100%. Bring on the triggers. The more exposure the more opportunity to practise not responding to intrusions. X

This is great news. Wish we had something like this in Exeter. Never know may catch on. Thanks Ashley xx

Hi all. I agree with Steve. Legal advice may be costly but at the end of the day it will be worth getting the right help here. It will help you to know where you stand. This is good for our type of thinking. So sorry you are being put through this. xxxxx

Hi both This is so true Paradoxer (cool name BTW) I have rumination OCD and the nature of the thoughts were initially harm to others and now its changed to harm to myself. OCD thoughts get bored and changes to something else close to your heart. It’s like that, a bully trying to grab your attention. Kick its butt into touch and keep going. You wont be starting over again. Remember how you dealt with the first thoughts. Apply the same rules. Have thought Dont pay it attention/don’t do compulsion Gently refocus on what’s going on around you Repeat. CBT helped me. I have a portfolio to chart my progress. Xx

Hi Norton Wolf Firstly are u having any help in the form of GP/mental health practitioner for the above issues? It would be handy for a diagnosis so you know what you are dealing with. I cant diagnose anything but sounds like obsessional thoughts to me. These kind of thoughts are the exact opposite of how you see yourself so they don’t seem to fit in with who you are. The fact that you are terrified of the thoughts dying/hanging yourself is not evidence of you wanting to do it. It is your mind replaying them over again to keep your attention on them. Normally with OCD there’s a pattern. Trigger =something that gives you negative automatic thought Intrusion = bad thought - going to hang myself! You can’t stop these thoughts. You can’t stop thoughts. Compulsion = what you do to make the anxiety better - thinking about it all day/ruminating. You can stop compulsion by doing a more helpful behaviour. If these are all present then could be OCD. If this is making your life hard then I would suggest GP referral so you can find out what you are dealing with. Hope this helps?

Hi Shann Sorry your having a hard time. This type of thought is exactly what my rumination OCD is about. I get very panicked if I am on my own. This is a trigger for me. Trigger leads to intrusions then to compulsion. I have, in the past, spent an entire day ruminating about being dead. This leads to negative thoughts and feelings. Depression/anxiety. So hard and utterly debilitating. I have deliberately spent time on my own to bring these thoughts on more. Over time I’ve got use to being on my own. Tell the anxiety to come on in and let it be there. Tell yourself this is anxiety/recognise it and sit it out without trying to push it away. Anxiety gets bored and then goes on its own. This however is very anxiety provoking in itself and I would suggest some help to get you on the right track. CBT/doctor etc. The sooner the better that way if it is OCD then it can be caught early to stop it getting worse and taking more of your time. Tricky when feelings of panic are intense. With help this does get better. Trust me. It does get better. To take on anxity/depression/OCD I personally found good diet and plenty of drinks are good. Exercise. Sleep/rest. Time to yourself (maybe a trigger) CBT and mindfulness help loads. I found taking care of yourself is very helpful in order to tackle this issue. Hope this helps. This quite literally sounds like me when I first realised my worries were overwhelming and anxiety so high I thought I might go insane. Starting to doubt everything. I felt I couldn’t even trust myself. I hope this helps my friend. I have been there and eventually and only just on my way up. I do not want you to suffer like I have for 7 years. Please seek help. And nip this in the bud ASAP.

No probs. I took sertraline while pregnant and breast feeding from the advice of the Pre- natel health team at the hospital. My GP told me to stop taking it. So the pre natal team wrote to the GMC and complained about the above. No probs Emsie. Good point to make. I do think info re. this is limited atm. Thank you xxxxx

Hi STEJ1986 Welcome. I only joined last week and I wish I’d known about it when I was first diagnosed. It’s great. I wish you all the best of luck in your journey to recovery. Well done for making the first step. Good for you for wanting to get your life back and getting control. I agree with humbleno1 When u see your GP hopefully they will make a referral to a mental health specialist. I asked for consultant psychiatrist. Long wait to see him though. Then there can be a considerable wait for therapy to start. It will be worth it my friend. Wishing you all the best. Always here. Xx

Great article. Thank you for sharing xx

Thanks for this OCDhasnobrain. I had 2 lots of CBT a few years back. Therapist told me his job was to train me to be my own therapist. I’m better when I do ERP and write stuff down. I’m slack at keeping to it though. I read lots about it. Knowledge is power - in the right places. I agree with what you say about better to take meds and be free of OCD. Then not to take meds and be suffering. It took me 3 years to get help and take meds. I was so worried about the stigma attached to them and beliefs that I needed meds to be happy. Hard choice. But glad I took them and haven’t looked back. One day I reckon I will be able to stop when I can dedicate more time to physical exercise. This defo helps. But life’s too busy atm with young family and responsible occupation. I will be free of OCD one day. I was before I had children. Well, it was probably there but not a disorder. Angst What you say is spot on. I have researched this disorder so I can attempt to recover. I’m just not consistent in my approach. My downfall. Maybe a New Years resolution to make CBT part of my weekly plan. I like the saying of “keep your friends close and your enemy’s even closer” The more I know about OCD and MY disorder the more I get it and bits fall into place Xx

I’m not planning on coming off them. I do not care if they are for life. I did reduce them down and stopped via very slow wean. But after 3 months OCD back again. But I do not feel Sertraline addictive as I had no withdrawal from them but I did wean off them super slowly. When I was off the SSRI I exercised regularly which kept me feeling good but then got back into negative habits and the OCD came back. So restarted them. I will cont to take 50mg and I will increase them if I need to. Im in the medical profession and know they are not addictive. The longer you have been on them the slower you need to wean off. NICE guidelines point towards combination of SSRI and CBT so that’s what I will do. I also read somewhere that you need to be “OCD free” for approx 1 yr before thinking of stopping SSRI. I’m not thinking of stopping just wanted advice re. increase. Sometimes people need them for life while others can come off them. I am only talking about my personal experience here and I do not speak for everyone as everyone is different, which is quite clear from the above posts. It’s a good thing were all different. I value your opinions. I really do. Thank you all for your help Thank you Ashley for your advice. X

Yes thank you for this. Was just wondering if I increased the dose it would put me in a better place to deal with it? Thank u Ashley. X

Hi guys. I take Sertraline in mornings. 50mg. Along with doing my CBT (notes) to try and get my OCD back in its box. However my symptoms are tolerable. But OCD still daily part of my life and ruins my recovery. Should I increase Sertraline? At least until I have OCD under control. My GP said I could tritate it up or down pending how I felt. Is 50mg not really cutting it? One of my friends takes 200mg? I first took citalapram but this was too much for me. I know it’s not going to be the same dose for everyone just wonder if I’m actually under doseing. OCD/anxiety/depression better on sertraline then off. Any help welcome?

My compulsions are less as busy doing Xmas stuff. One benefit of Xmas. LOL My OCD gets worse afterwards when it’s all over and life goes back to being quieter.

Haha Saffie you are funny. I’ve only just started the learning to deal with emotion rigmarole. Struggled for so long. But in the last month and since coming into this forum, which has been a great help, I am pacing myself through the emotions. Really tiring. Talk about needing to rise to the challenge. I practice mindfulness which is magical. It somehow makes things clearer and more colourful and not just grey. I am a better person for it. I get complacent and then don’t practise mindfulness and end up in a pile of it....again. Enjoying your posts Saffie. Also I like gbg post regarding tolerating uncertanty, although very hard, is a good thing for us. I need to practise this more also. I think we all do. Thanks both gbg and Saffie xx

Hi Saffie Excellent post. I have also had 2 lots of CBT for rumination/intrusive thoughts. I didn’t feel it helped at the time but now I know it really helped and still does. I know exactly what your saying about OCD being a kind of protection mechanism. I still find this when I’m least exspecting it. I run clinics in hospital and my patient can be discussing something with me and I’m busy ruminating - so automatic. Compulsions become the norm and take away your previous helpful cognitions. Like the Brian gets so use to doing these negative habits and then they “move in”. My last therapist was good. While I was “progressing” with the CBT I started to get more emotional responces to stressful things which would normally made me have intrusions. So as I habitualised the intrusions I would instead get normal emotions/thoughts. I found these worrying as hadn’t had them for so long. Sometimes I would worry why I’ve become angry/annoyed etc. My therapist talked me through them and that they are normal responses to day to day stresses. He was great and I learnt a lot. I agree 100% with you that it’s a defence mechanisms and I don’t think it’s untill your well on the road to recovery that you can see OCD for what it really is. Thanks xx

Thanks Felix4 I do enjoying perfecting things. I spend ages making something look good. However it doesn’t stop me from doing day to day things. I get intrusive thoughts and then I spend lots of my time doing compulsions such as avoidance and ruminating. Utterly depressing. Not sure if it’s OCPD or OCD! I defo have high standards - with some things - tidy house/do well at work/ want the best for my kids but not high standards with other stuff. Not sure if it’s a personality disorder as I have got lots of close friends, I can be flexible and happy to do things other people way. My psychiatrist diagnosed OCD. But now not sure Now I’m a worried I have OCPD !!

Yes agreed. I have let my kids play with them. That’s fine. But hard at first but see no reason to allow them to play. I spent ages doing it last night - but after all my jobs were done. Thank you for your advice. I do however get angry when I have made my house look amazing then the kids trash it. This I defiantly need to work on. And I do spend ages doing tidying. I do it to stop compulsions! Doing a different behavior takes me away from compulsions but then I get into tidying and make it perfect when I should just tidy until it’s OK. Not perfect. I should allow myself time to do stuff I really enjoy like photography/watching DVDs. Who cares if my house is not like a show home. Plenty of time to do that when kids are grown up.

I agree. Sometimes I love getting things to look a particular way. Like tonight I have been doing Xmas decs and making them look “perfect”! But I enjoy it. Is this being obsessive but in a good way? If there can be a good way? If anyone touches them I will get annoyed so perhaps not a good way. I loved doing it. Got totally absorbed by it.