Is it coming back?

[Headwreck]

Hi. Sorry for posting but don't know where to turn.

I've been on SSRIs since October 2019. I stopped thinking about stuff so much and occupied myself with work. The past few weeks I have started feeling extremely depressed and I have started feeling very anxious again with that shortness of breath returning. I am also starting to ruminate about the cheating again. I think I might have kissed this man but why would he say the next day that he felt like kissing me? Etc.

I have not changed my dose in medication and I am not doing anything differently to the past few months. I do have an extremely stressful situation at home right now which is causing me a lot of worry so could this have triggered me off? I also feel extremely trapped. I don't know.

[Bewildered again]

I think stress definitely triggers it. Maybe go back to the gp 

[californiadreaming]

Hey Headwreck, stress and life changes can certainly trigger anxiety which then triggers this OCD stuff.

Are you still seeing a therapist and applying what you learned in therapy to every day?

[dksea]

Humans are ever changing, often fluctuating, creatures.  As others have said a variety of factors can affect how we feel and when it comes to OCD, how our body is responding.  SSRIs increase the availability of serotonin in our brains, which, for some reason, dampens the effects of OCD.  But the way they do so is not exactly precise, and its difficult to measure what your "levels" of serotonin are.  Its not like diabetes where you can regularly measure your blood sugar and adjust your medication to keep it within a stable range.  For OCD we have to kind of guess based on how you are feeling and what symptoms you are experiencing.  It could be that your medication level has been keeping you just above a critical threshold, but changes recently such as stress, diet, weather, your bodies natural cycles, etc. have caused your serotonin production to dip below that critical level.  Adjusting the medication dosage might help, but you won't know until you try. Alternatively applying CBT techniques to better manage the types of intrusive thoughts and reactions is also something you can do.  In fact, you can do the latter while you wait to do the former or decide if you want to do the former.

Unfortunately OCD can wax and wane, sometimes for no apparent reason.  Apply the skills you have learned, talk to your doctor, and know that you've handled this before, you can do it again.