Dead end

I feel like I’ve hit a dead end with ocd treatment and can’t figure out anything that is going to help me. I have extremely bad ocd and I have tried therapy twice a week at an ocd specialty center from October to April, (it got bumped down to once a week because we weren’t getting anywhere), I have tried nearly every medication. I have tried Prozac 80mg Zoloft 200 mg, abilify 10mg, buspirone 60 mg, Xanax and Seroquel for anxiety spikes, 20 mg of memantine, and I just started 150mg of chlomipramine (I started 100 mg over week and a half ago and 50 mg before that). I might have left something out. The medications have not done anything for me, and therapy hasn’t done anything for me. I tried ERP with my therapist, but because of the complexity of the ocd (obsessions stacking on one another), it was so complicated, I couldn’t explain it. At the ocd center they said that I need to do residential treatment over the summer for them to see me again. My parents said I’m not doing that over the summer and have threatened to make me take pay my apartment rent if I do (I’m 20). I have limited money. I’m likely going to do TMS over the summer if the chlomipramine doesn’t do something magical within a few weeks, and if that doesn’t work, outpatient therapy hasn’t worked and probably isn’t going to work for me, and there aren’t many medications for ocd I haven’t tried. I’m tired of living with severe ocd and nothing working. Nothing has even worked a little bit. My Y-BOCS scores are in the high 30s. It’s become the “new normal” for me to live like this and I’m afraid that’s how I am going to have to live my life. I don’t know if anyone has advice, but I am at a stuck point. My psychiatrist said he would refer me for deep brain stimulation if it got to the point where TMS didn’t work, and my parents said I’m not doing that. I’d literally be willing to do an experimental trial for something even with risk, because I hate living like this. If I am going wrong in ERP, I don’t know where it is, because I haven’t been able to articulate my fears to the therapist well, and we haven’t found an exposure that works well

#happiness

Date posted: Yesterday

I am so sorry you are going through this. I was in your shoes but ERP has finally helped me. I recommend you looking into McLean hospital. I went to Roger’s and they weren’t helpful. You are too young to give up. What is your subtype of ocd. I have tried ketamine, TMS, deep TMS, ECT and cycled through two pages of medications. They tried to say I was bi polar at one point and schitzoeffective disorder. I was on all kinds of antipsychotics. I am now on Zoloft and am getting on Wellbutrin.

Hey006

Date posted: 21h

Can you ask your psychiatrist about Lamotrigine? I'm no medical professional. But I have also been on a whole lot of medicine was trying to find the right match for years. From how my psychiatrist explained things to me, she said "a lot of medicine used to treat seizures and epilepsy can work well for OCD". I have also been on Abilify but at 30mg for 2ish years with like 2800mg of Gabapentin and Wellbutrin XL 200mg at the same time. Not good, so I eventually decreased and switched to only Lamotrigine which is a good fit for me. Everyone has different responses to different medicine and treatments, but I'm just letting you know what worked for me.

Be a part of the largest OCD Community

Share your thoughts so the Community can respond