Stupidly triggered myself this morning

I’ve recently started medication for my ocd, and this morning I decided to research the side effects of this medication. Instantly I was hit with all of the “dangerous, severe, emergency room!!! alarm bells!!” side effects, and it really freaked me out. I was instantly hit with a bunch of fears, a load of “oh no, what if that happens to me, what if I’ve already experienced this but not noticed, what if I’m in danger??” type of thoughts. I’d been doing slightly better yesterday, but this set me back a little bit this morning. Luckily I think I’ve been able to calm myself down A LITTLE bit since that, not completely, but i definitely don’t think I’m as distressed as I was previously. I’m on a sort of titration period with this medication, so it might take a few weeks to actually start working, and calming down all these worries I have, and I really don’t want to suddenly come off of it because I’ve read the POTENTIAL/(actually uncommon) side effects and scared myself, because that’s exactly what the ocd WANTS me to do. If I listened to it and decided to just avoid the medication all together, then the ocd would have full reign again. It’s only trying to scare me with this so that I’ll stop taking the medication which will eventually get rid of it. It’s scared I’ll be rid of it eventually, so I shouldn’t let it scare me, and i definitely shouldn’t let it win.

AnonymousAle...

User type: OCD Conqueror

Date posted: 14h

Your reaction is completely understandable; that list contains some scary things. I try to remind myself of 2 things when looking at stuff like side effects. 1. Any "adverse event" that occurs during the clinical trial is reported by law, even if causation is undetermined. An exaggerated example I like to use is, you are in a clinical trial for a new migraine medicine. One day you are walking down the street, and an anvil comically falls from the sky and crushes you. The side effects would then include "risk of being crushed by an anvil". Some of the most extreme side effects are simply things that cooccur, but can't necessarily be ruled out. 2. The human population is on a bell curve. Some humans experience 0 side effects (lucky ducks), some humans experience severe side effects, but most people, something like 95% of the population (u±SD if you are a math nerd) have normal side effects like night sweats or reduced libido. I try to remind myself that I'm statistically most likely to be in that 95% that have annoying side effects. At the end of the day, an anvil could comically fall out of the sky and land on you, but would something so comically unlikely and ridiculous stop you from going to get your favorite (insert something your passionate about here)? The goal is to get to the point where the answer is no. Yes it could happen, as ridiculous as it is, but you move on anyway.

starlight.se...

Date posted: 14h

Yeah keep taking the medication if you’r OCD tell you not to, don’t obey it! That’s what ERP is like, you have to sit with the uncertainty and the discomfort without performing the ritual and even though anxiety will rise, after a while it will naturally falls on its own. And then the loop weakens and you get stronger. If you feel lonely and you want more help and more suggestions and recommendations (I’m a psychology student so I know what I’m talking) I would love to be friends and share experiences <3

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