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Big Day has come...


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The big day has come for me, I heard the magic words from therapist's lips "Shall we start decreasing the dose of medicine?" (clomipramine and pregabaline)

If you have ever been in medicine you realise of what a big day it is

For example when I quit Depakine (Sodium Valrpoate) my life changed is 24 hours to  the much better!

But now I don't know what is going to happen, I have been taking the clomipramine for more than a decade, 

Furthermore, my therapist is located in Greece, I now live in London, will this be safe? 

Have you any relative experience? 

Thanks in advance!

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2 hours ago, diomedes said:

Furthermore, my therapist is located in Greece, I now live in London, will this be safe? 

If you're reducing meds then I don't see any reason why it wouldn't be safe, especially if done slowly. Do you have a GP in London?  I imagine the worst case scenario if you feel you're relapsing the dose may need to be upped again. But I am sure if you withdraw under doctors guidance you will be well.  Good luck with it :)

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I was only on Pregabalin (for anxiety) for a short time, but it too will need a gradual process of reduction to withdraw from it. 

Why don't you gradually withdraw from that drug first - which is not an OCD treatment as such, but rather more I believe for general anxiety? See if you can cope without it? It's now a controlled drug in this country and in any case you will need to consult with a doctor for this process. 

In this country, under the NICE treatment guidelines for OCD, Clomipramine wouldn't normally be a first choice drug for OCD, but rather if the SSRI drugs had first proved ineffective. 

And I think people who then find it effective may choose to remain on it - one of our forum members certainly made that choice. 

So my question is why would your therapist be thinking of you coming off the Clomipramine, if it has proved effective? 

Edited by taurean
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23 minutes ago, taurean said:

And I think people who then find it effective may choose to remain on it - one of our forum members certainly made that choice. 

But that's the choice of that individual Roy. What is right for person A may not be for person B when it comes to meds. 

22 minutes ago, taurean said:

So my question is why would your therapist be thinking of you coming off the Clomipramine, if it has proved effective?

Why not though?  If a person's made good progress with therapy to challenge and tackle the OCD I don't think there's anything wrong with coming off meds if that's the choice of the patient. 

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How a med like an SSRI or Clomipramine may or may not be beneficial for a patient and their OCD is very individually subjective. 

But various people here have reported that, when their med had a very beneficial effect on the OCD itself - not just acting as water wings to help them engage with CBT - and they thought they could come off it and do without it, they found that they couldn't and lost the benefit they had gained. 

 

Edited by taurean
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2 minutes ago, taurean said:

But various people here have reported that, when their med had a very beneficial effect on the OCD itself - not just acting as water wings to help them engage with CBT - and they thought they could come off it and do without it, they found that they couldn't and lost the benefit they had gained.

I appreciate that, but your posts are coming across like you're encouraging diomedes to remain on them.  I did mention should he/she find themselves relapsing they might need to go back on. 

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Both these drugs are powerful and each needs tapering off to withdraw. 

So it might be a real challenge to undertake that concurrently. 

With the Clomipramine I thought it helpful to share what I know to be others' experiences of coming off a drug treatment for OCD as the therapist /doctor may not appreciate that, and that experience is what diomedes is seeking. 

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The thing is that I cannot bear it any longer, clomipramine kills panic attacks and also helps a lot obsessive thinking,

But you are not really alive, when it's weekend I sleep 15 hours per day, and when I wake up I feel alive,

Which means that the only antidote to the meds' side effects is oversleeping,

When I go to work I take a huge amount of instant coffee which means more side effects...

I can't be a zombie any longer 

Edited by diomedes
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There are other meds, have you tried them? 

Fluoxetine turned me into a zombie, but I got along fine with Citalopram - people react differently to these drugs. I am currently on Sertraline to see if it helps keep my OCD at bay. 

For me the real benefit however comes from CBT and additional clinical psychology tips. Have you been having, and engaging with, therapy? 

Edited by taurean
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