Is OCD and depression a common package? It almost seems that I’ve had depression as long as my anxiety.

So basically I didn’t know till my hocd started. But looking back at my life I had ocd since I was a kid. Like 6-7 years old. First time happening I remember that when I was doing stuff many times I had to say something like a little poem in my head to stop it. Then I had this thing were if I felt my left foot touch the floor 5 times I had to do the touch the floor with my right foot too. Then I had something I guess contamination??? Basically after washing my hands I had a sensation on my hand like I could still “feel” the germs and I had to wash them again. Then I started having thoughts of my family members getting hurt. I had intrusive thoughts about me hurting my dog. Then I had this obsession that a guy who used to be in my school is looking for me to beat me up. And how it’s this obsession about my sexuality even tho I never doubted or questioned it before. Is that possible??? Like can you be born with it? I’m pretty sure both my parents have it too. At least at some level. Take my father for example he had an obsession that he was going to die the moment he turned 30.

I remember reading a comment someone had made to one of my posts on an OCD subreddit and they told me how they believed their OCD symptoms got worse during a time in their life when they were socially isolated. Reading this comment made the brightest lightbulb go off in my head because it basically summarized most of what I’ve been going through. In addition to OCD, I also struggle with depression and social anxiety. I feel like these three things and the profound sense of loneliness I’ve felt throughout my years in college (undergrad) feed off of each other. I know that OCD can manifest in so many different ways regardless of what your social life looks like, but I can’t help but feel like the lack of relationships (specifically friendships)/community in my life has something to do with my mental health and the delay in my recovery. Side note: I’m still relatively new to NOCD, but I’m happy to say that I’ve been making some good progress in my therapy sessions <3

As my current mental health has definitely reached a new low, I will probably soon start with medication. However, since I am actually somewhat afraid of the typical side effects of antidepressants and mood-stabilizers, I wanted to ask anyone who is or has been taking medication for OCD and or depression (and mood-swings). I recently got also diagnosed with depression (I’ll be further tested for burnout) and I also suffer from pretty intense mood swings and anxiety, both really draining the last bit of energy that I currently have. You can honestly be as specific and descriptive as you want since I don’t know any people in my personal life that take any medication for their mental health and I’m genuinely curious about side effects, how long the different meds take to kick in, etc. The only meds I’m familiar with are beta blockers, specifically bisoprolol but I want to switch to propranolol.