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Question about SSRI


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Hello everyone, just wanted to ask if SSRI's can worsten OCD thoughts initially. I've just started taking them, and I noticed that my ruminations have increased. I suffer from existential OCD, so my thoughts about nothing being real have been amplified greatly. I also have thoughts about me not being real. I feel very dissociated. Thanks in advance! 

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As Doubt_It says. I definitely find I have a surge of worse anxiety for a while. It was initially about three weeks first time I took an SSRI, but last time I went onto SSRIs, the anxiety worsened within a couple days, and I actually started feeling the benefits of it within a week.

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Yes because you feel side effects before benefits kickin. Side effects may get better.

SSRIs won’t cure ocd & won’t change thoughts or actions just mute a person up emotionally.

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6 hours ago, Handy said:

just mute a person up emotionally.

Yeah no, this is NOT what SSRIs do for everyone.  Do not make such claims when they are inaccurate.

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11 hours ago, Handy said:

Yes because you feel side effects before benefits kickin. Side effects may get better.

SSRIs won’t cure ocd & won’t change thoughts or actions just mute a person up emotionally.

Without Prozac, I'd be a shell of a person. It saved my life.

I'm sorry for any adverse reactions you experienced, but this isn't the thread for that

Edited by ashipinharbor
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On 19/07/2020 at 23:58, dksea said:

Yeah no, this is NOT what SSRIs do for everyone.  Do not make such claims when they are inaccurate.

You’ve been on them for a very long time haven’t you? If so, how would you know what you’re feeling & how you should feel? A question like this is quite a valid question...

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On 22/07/2020 at 23:48, Handy said:

You’ve been on them for a very long time haven’t you? If so, how would you know what you’re feeling & how you should feel?

Simple, I know how I felt before I started taking SSRIs and I know how I felt after I started taking them.  I know what changes I experienced and could easily compare them.  At no point did I feel like my emotions were being "muted" as you claim.  I could still feel the same anger, joy, sadness, frustration as before.  The difference was not in emotional range or experience, it was to how easily the intrusive thoughts became "stuck" in my mind, how easily I could shrug them off.

In addition to my own observations were the observations of my family around me, my family who had seen the effects of the onset of OCD and my subsequent changes as well as what happened when I started taking the SSRIs.  All of which happened in a relatively short time period, less than a year from onset of symptoms to diagnose and starting the meds.  They described it as if I was "like my old self again".

Finally I can compare my emotions and emotional reactions to people around me.  I can take in experiences which other people similarly share and see if I have a relatively reasonable range of responses. I am, in fact quite comfortable with expressing my emotions and am very passionate about any number of topics.  I can experience deep anger at injustice, deep frustration with ignorance, great joy at beauty, great sadness with loss.  I have no reason to believe my emotional responses are somehow "muted".  There is overwhelming evidence to suggest they are not and none that they are based on those three key areas, past experience, outside observation of others, my own contemporary comparison to others.  

Is it possible SSRIs can affect some patients by dulling their emotional responses? Sure, and I have no problem accepting someone who asserts that thats is their experience with SSRIs, but it is not, based on the literature or my own personal experience "how they work".  Your claim is overly broad and uninformed.

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Guest dimmerswitch

Personally, I’ve found my medication to be a great support in dealing with my OCD. As dksea has pointed out, I too remember how I struggled before ssri medication. I still struggle, but I find the medication reduced my anxiety, which I believe is a direct link to triggering my OCD. 
I would encourage anyone who is struggling with this illness to speak with their GP and along with cbt this could be a positive start to a better quality of life with OCD, or even like some forum members here, actually ridding themselves of it for good. It’s important to remember, no ssri or cbt will rid us of OCD alone. Our input is still the strongest way to beat OCD. 

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