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Words of wisdom needed


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Hello - my first post on here after trawling on the internet in search of help and advice.

I'm married to someone with OCD.  He first had it 15 years ago and was prescribed Fluoxetine which sorted it out no problem at 20mg.  Then BOOM. Stopped working about 18 months ago. He saw a private psychiatrist who switched him to Clomiprinine but he had side effects that were not good and so he came off that - shocking withdrawal - and just before Christmas started Citalopram.  We had a family bereavement which really knocked him back and I could see him withdrawing day by day on Citalopram. Decision was made by GP to come off and see NHS psychiatrist which he has done last week.  He has cross tapered him to sertraline and this is day 4 of 25mg with a view to increase dosage every 4/5 days to try to get to 200mg.

His anxiety is crazy and he has been relying on diazepam to get through the day.  He hasn't had any now for 3 days so I suppose although the anxiety is bad, he's not agitated and shaking anymore, just scared. He has intrusive thought about needles and contamination mainly. 

I am at my tether.  So desperate for this new medication to work as we obviously have financial implications looming as he will stop being paid 1.6.19 and is on half pay now until this date. 

I feel that he should have been given a second SSRI before Clomiprinine and have high hopes of Sertraline.

Can anyone give me their words of wisdom? I feel like a carer not a wife and after 25 years of marriage am on the edge!

ETA: Anyone know of any level 4/5 CBT as our NHS referral takes 1 year and the private CBT that he was having will stop due to cost plus I'm cynical about these private guys too.

 

 

Edited by Pippa
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Hi Pippa, welcome to the forum :)

It is unlikely that medication will help get rid of your husband's OCD so starting to tackle his problem with CBT is definitely the answer. I'm not sure what you mean by 4/5 level CBT but if you are currently on an NHS waiting list and can't affort private for long then self-help is the way to go. The best self-help book is Break free from OCD. It takes you through what OCD is, how the problem is maintained and how to tackle it. It also has a case study of someone with contamination fears, so hopefully your husband can relate to that. 

It is important you look after yourself too, learn what you can and take time outs for your own mental health. Feeling like a carer is not how you want to feel but this is temporary, people can make really fast progress with the correct help and support. If you have more questions about therapy, feel free to ask :)

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This might be a bit late of a reply, but just in case you're still looking at this. I had a terrible relapse a few years back. Also had been on fluoxetine...I actually chose to come off it because I was doing so well...bad mistake I think! anyhow I relapsed badly, then went on sertraline. It helped incredibly. I loved it way more than the fluoxetine (that had made me feel a little jittery and disrupted my sleep)

I have remained on sertraline for a few years now, am on a relatively low dose (75mg) worked hard with cbt to address the ocd (mostly through a self help book that guided me through cognitive exercises as well as how to work through exposure therapy)

so have hope for you and your husband. I know I put my family through a bit of hell when I went through my relapse, but it's amazing how much progress one can make once they start on the right track! i echo Gemma in highly recommending a good self help book for ocd though even if you are seeing therapists...it helps so much to understand the whole process of how to get better.

 

 

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