Rory

I guess during specific times of day there’s just less traffic on the forums than other times. Don’t worry, you’re just as valid as everyone else here, it’s just sometimes people won’t see your posts or might not know how to respond because they are dealing with a different theme of OCD <3

How much did it change your anxiety and rumination for you? I’ve been on at first 50mg of sertraline (Zoloft) for 1-2 months and then 100mg for 1-2 months and since then I’ve been on 150mg for about 2 months, I’ve definitely noticed a pretty big change in my general mood and anxiety but it seems like it might need more time to take effect. When do you think it really “kicked in”? I don’t feel like I’ve had an experience like that with my meds and I always hear stories from others who say it really kicked in at a certain point. They’re definitely helpful for me but no massive changes yet, maybe I’ll need to wait some more time for it to happen.

Hi Wesker, I think that sometimes people with OCD are more susceptible to finding coincidences and then fearing that they mean something, especially if it’s a theme like it seems for you. My best advice would be to just ignore the thought and get on with whatever you were doing. I used to think if the clock went up in multiples of 7 that I would be possessed when I was younger. Don’t believe any of the OCD, and just ignore it. Best of luck

Hi berserk, I completely understand the number part. Sometimes my mind almost forces me to do things in specific orders like 2 sets of 4, then 1, then 2 sets of 4, then 1, etc. Ritual OCD really is one of the worst because it gets much worse over time and soon you find yourself taking hours to do something and it wastes both your time and money like you said. I’m no expert but I think the only way to tackle this is to do what you said and suppress the thoughts. It’s really really tough and trust me I know, but exposing yourself to the thought of “I’m not clean unless I shower until my skin is red and itchy” without actually carrying out the compulsion of showering for that long tells your brain that there’s nothing to actually worry about. OCD is all about our brains trying to protect us from something we don’t need protection from because of a faulty wiring. At first this exposure is really hard but over time you get better at it and I hope that you will be able to overcome this ritual because I understand how you feel, years ago I sometimes spent hours repeating one thing on end and it was absolute torture. Best of luck

I’ve been suffering with OCD for so long now (more or less since I was about 6, only got diagnosed a year ago), but whilst it’s crippled me before I can honestly say that right now it might mess up my future. So I’ve got my gcse mocks coming up in a month (I’m not really sure what the equivalent would be in any other country, sorry) and I’ll be honest whilst I’m predicted a pass for my school’s sixth form, I really don’t know if I can continue to work for those results if I’m going to be like this for most of it. I’m used to OCD now, been on sertraline 100mg for about a month and before then I was on 50mg for about 5 months. The meds do make me feel slightly better but that doesn’t take away from the overall feeling of just absolute hopelessness to be honest. I don’t want to disappoint my parents because I’m perfectly capable of getting good marks but I mean, I’ve always been lazy and this just exacerbates it. So I just need some advice as to how to deal with OCD in order to make my revision more manageable. Thanks