What is normal ocd on meds?

I’m considering a med change and maybe this is checking, maybe it isn’t but what’s “normal” with severe ocd on medication? What is an expectation for life ? Should you be struggling every day ? I’ve done erp for a couple years with some very difficult other issues that have come up (a new heart diagnosis, an affair my husband had, infertility prior to diagnosis, a separation of marriage, a reuniting, and also ptsd from childhood therapy work.) I work full time and take time off thanks to working a job with good vacation time but this has kept me from having children due to anxiety and fear after a serious heart diagnosis. This is why i am considering the med change. I still struggle a lot with intrusive thoughts- some weekends I wonder if I will make it through. There are constant breakdowns. Depression is very real and very difficult. TBH I don’t know another person who has been as committed to ERP as I have. Every day multiple exposures and sometimes I push myself too much. I’ve been on 200 mg Zoloft for 10 years and 250 mg the last three. I am considering a med change due to ocd keeping me from having what I want but maybe I am expecting too much ? My psychiatrist and I have spoken and have agreed to try something else but since going down to 200 mg o definitely notice more intrusive thoughts and I’m scared and don’t know if maybe this is just as good as it gets for someone with severe ocd….

OCDFamily

User type: OCD Conqueror

Date posted: 2y

Be gentle with yourself. I dont know the answers for you. For me, worrying about meds was part of ocd...

OCDFamily

User type: OCD Conqueror

Date posted: 2y

You are working thru difficult times. Give yourself grace

artsygirl

User type: OCD Conqueror

Date posted: 2y

@OCDFamily Thank you.

Ad485

Date posted: 2y

I have severe OCD and take 200 mg sertraline as well as a small dose of another older antidepressant to augment it. There’s always clomipramine if all else fails. No one can define “normal” for you. I think this disorder waxes and wanes in life in response to external factors and biochemistry. I’ve been diagnosed for 10 years and, like you, I am pushing forward in exposures, trying to learn as much about this to live the life I want. I’ve felt like my OCD has been extremely bad recently but there have been long periods of times in the past where it felt relatively non-existent. I have an autoimmune disease which can make it worse at times. Sometimes I feel like I’ve obsessed over everything my brain can possibly torture me with.. med side effects, etc. Health OCD can definitely increase when you have a new chronic diagnosis. Don’t give up. Sometimes the body is more predisposed to a stress response with a history of trauma, and that’s okay. There are always solutions. Different kinds of therapy to explore trauma or treat other additional diagnoses (in addition to ERP, not in place of it). If all of this happened recently, maybe your body just needs some time for regulate, because that list of occurrences can be overwhelming for a short period of time. Think about any differential/additional diagnoses and how they can be treated, there is EMDR as well. I think I need to stop now because I feel like I might be giving you reassurance.

artsygirl

User type: OCD Conqueror

Date posted: 2y

@Ad485 I don’t feel like it was reassurance, truly. I feel like it was really helpful to get another persons point of view who has a chronic condition. I have an aneurysm that will require open heart surgery at some point which I found out about two years ago. It’s been a difficult journey since then as everything else has happened since. I did cognitive processing theory for ptsd within that time as well. I think part of me needs to allow myself some more grace and know this isn’t linear. Do you mind me asking how often a month you feel like you don’t know if you can keep going ?

Ad485

Date posted: 2y

@artsygirl In the last two months? Several days. The 8 months before that? Not really at all. Best of luck with the open heart surgery. Father needs it as well for a genetic condition that I *fingers crossed* don’t have. This all happened within the past two years? Wow. Yeah, definitely give it some time. Your body needs to recover from the stress. Best of luck.

Anonymous

Date posted: 24w

Decades of OCD..confused about my next steps!!!

I have had ocd for decades! Could I still be cured???? (Of you can call it that?) I have seen different therapists but it never had fully left me...not by any stretch of the imagination. I do want to be free of this ocd and its power over me and all the bad that it brought into my life!!! Some days I am strong and feel like I am fighting it put other days...many days...I don't get things done or if I do I take a long time to-do the things I need to get done. I feel like I know this is just then ocd stopping me and that these are just thoughts but nobody in my family understands and though they have shared my journey and hated it a I do.....it just feels like I want so bad to be the best person I coukd be but I avoid places, people, things, that have any reminder of my ocd.......and so it restricts me from getting better and completing tasks the way I used to. Now UI might go and make 2-3 trips cuz I am worried to shop at a place and therefore it takes my time up. The avoidance I do is bad! When I actually don't listen to my ocd and don't avoid something...I feel great! ,However, it happens so rarely!!! I.dont know how finding a therapist through NOCD will help me. It is not in person and two be honest I almost think I need medicine to push me along. I don't have anybsteady and consistent improvements. However, I don't think I want to be on medication for the rest of my life! I am very confused!

eb123456789

Date posted: 21w

Medication Symptom Management

This is kind of a weird question, but I recently increased my SSRI dosage and have experienced tremendous relief. It has quieted my intrusive thoughts so much and my compulsions are no longer as all-consuming. However, I don’t want to be on this high of a dosage forever and know that medication alone shouldn’t be my only fix. I’m seeing a new psychiatrist on Wednesday and am wondering if the recent decrease in frequency of my symptoms will be a bar to my getting ocd treatment? In other words, if in this present moment I’m doing better, but up until a few days ago my compulsions were taking up pretty much every moment of my waking day, will I still be classified as having ocd? I start getting worried when I feel better that I don’t actually have ocd and just use it as a defense mechanism to avoid consequences of my actions/I’m secretly a terrible person

ocdnomore1

Date posted: 6w

How abou you?

I suffer since 10 - 15 yrs from specific fears. It was years that my OCD constantly wanted to be checked if I have HIV or not. I had a lot of sex and I thought this is normal. But I ruminated in my backhead about and was testing like 5 - 10 times a year. After the test I felt everytime so relieved. In Corona I was addicted to porn and even I lost control and was watching pretty hard stuff. I was chatting with a girl and we fantasized about really disturbing things. I never wanna meet her and for me was sure it's just kinda onlinestuff. I was in a relationship 3 years now. And I lost fear of HIV. But then came Morality OCD, Real Event (this chat) and after some times POCD. This combination was knocking me out, I felt like the badest person on earth. I did everything wrong and searched for relief and reassurance. It put me to the point of suicidal. I never ever hurting somebody, but my brain was making me a monster. I had to quit the relationship because I just couldn't give her what she deserved. I was in a clinic for 3 months. And we tested medication with ERP (before I took escitalopram for years). Anafranil was working first, then too many side-effects. I tried even without meds, but was so depressed. Now on sertralin for 5 weeks, but only 2 weeks on therapeutic dose 200mg. And wow, now I really feel so confused in the brain. I feel like how big my OCD became. The specific thoughts are not anymore, BUT it sticks on EVERYTHING atm. It's delusional how it feels in the brain. I really hope so deep my brain makes finally a reset and I need to wait it out. I could live with OCD for a long time but the last 1-2 yrs it took absolutely everything. I remark that POCD doesn't stick anymore like before but my brain is now constructing a very bad future because of past mistakes (that I all discussed with family, friends for relief over and over and over again). So it's like my OCD is now Real Event (The sexchat) again. Anyone was on the same point in life?

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What is normal ocd on meds?

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