Medications

I feel the same way. I hear so many horror stories about withdrawal symptoms or the first weeks of starting a med making someone want to crawl out of their skin. I know medication can be SO helpful, and in some cases, life saving, but my OCD really latches onto all of the legitimately negative stories too.

I have been trying to manage ocd without medication my therapist is supportive in that way... It's slow going though at least for me

There’s nothing wrong about dying out if medications help you in the ERP and getting better. You are working WITH your psychiatrist and you do have a say in what you do or do not take. If they argue about it you, don’t go back to them 🤷🏻‍♀️ I’ve done that with a few psychiatrists that wanted to be prissy with me. Then I found one that was nice, but my therapist and I realized my body/Brian just doesn’t take medication at all, no matter what it is, so I recovered without medication.

In addition to having mental illness and taking paroxetine (generic for Paxil) for 7 years, my educational background is in preventative/primary healthcare (but I’m not a doctor). In my experience, being on an SSRI has taken just enough of the edge off of my anxiety so that I can perceive it as separate from myself and address it more effectively in therapy. And that’s exactly what medication is intended for. If a doctor tells you differently, you can find a different doctor. Medication can help you feel more like yourself and will better help you do the work in therapy because no medication is a cure for OCD or generalized anxiety or any other mental health condition. The best way forward for all of us suffering from OCD is to participate in behavioral interventions and re-conceptualize cognitive distortions in ERP and CBT. My understanding of the research is that for OCD, an optimized course of medication is to take an SSRI at a high dose for a comparatively short period of time while you’re working through ERP. Once you reach some stability and maintenance, you can lower your dose or come off of it completely. I’ve been on a low dose for as long as I have because no one figured out I likely have OCD and I definitely haven’t been treated for it until now… even so, it has been essential to me living with some quality of life. I never imagined I would be on it for this long, and I was hesitant at first too because of health related fears and the potential experience of withdrawals when I (hopefully one day) get off of it. But I know a good doctor will reduce your dose slowly down to 0mg so you will have minimal withdrawal symptoms. Given that health concerns is one of your prevailing OCD subtypes, I wonder if you would consider working on trying medication as an exposure with your therapist? Just a thought, because medication is definitely not for everyone and might not be the best way forward for you. Anything is okay! You’re in control of your healthcare and mental health journey!

I have been on Zoloft for 8 years. I just recently went up to 200mg (started on 50mg for a week and 100mg for 4 years. Tried to drop down to 75mg and it did not go well, so went to 150 for another 4 years) I am still weathering a spike after being okay for the last 6 months. It does worry me that my Zoloft doesn't work anymore or something because this spike seemingly came out of nowhere, but I am starting therapy tomorrow so hopefully I'll feel better soon.