- Date posted
- 4y
- Date posted
- 4y
I understand i was on benzos when I needed them. I stop taking them and allowed the exposures to things I fear help me. The brain eventually gets accustomed to the thoughts from exposure exercises and doesn't see it has a threat. It does take time but it is possible. Keep pressing forward man you got this. There are some good books on harm ocd as I have this theme too.
- Date posted
- 4y
I’m so sorry you’re struggling right now. I used to take benzos too and tapering off was very difficult. If you’re still tapering down, that’s probably a big source of the issue. Each decrease feels like hell. And that may be why your ssri feels like it isn’t helping much. You may want to consider trying a different ssri. Especially if you haven’t found it particularly helpful in general. Also: are you seeing an ocd specialist? While meds can sort of “take the edge off,” the best real treatment is CBT with erp by an ocd specialist. Learning to stop neutralizing your thoughts (which is a compulsion) and practicing managing your fear through erp could help lessen the thoughts and your anxiety overall. You may also want to add a daily mindfulness practice into the works. It can help you stay present and learn to let the thoughts pass by without getting caught up in them.
- Date posted
- 4y
I see a normal psychiatrist. I have seen them for many years and I know alot of the general techniques that your talking about. Most of the time I do fairly well. But about fall time every year I normally hit a bad patch where I have to work much harder to deal with the symptoms. It seems to follow the changing of the seasons. My psyc seems to think I may have some S.A.D going on as well. I started on 15 myself of diazepam 2 years ago and I'm down to 1/4 of a 2 mg tablet 3 times a day. So 1 1/2 mg a day. Not much at all. I know this will pass. Im just tired after all these years of dealing with it.
- Date posted
- 4y
My ocd always seems to get worse with season changes to. Could be SAD. Also could just be our general tendency to struggle with change 🤷♀️ Since you know right now will be more difficult, don’t try to just white knuckle it through. Give yourself some slack. If there’s a commitment or two you can drop, drop them. If you’ve been eating shitty and not keeping up a good sleep schedule, fix that. If you have some big life changes or choices to deal with soon, what about postponing until you’re back into the rhythm of things again. Giving yourself permission to be a little less okay for awhile may be all you need. Beating yourself up doesn’t help anything. And everyone, with it without ocd, needs a break sometimes.
- Date posted
- 4y
Mg not myself lol!
- Date posted
- 4y
The hardest thing for me. Is my family has never understood. I hate the term "I'm a little OCD". People have no clue what real OCD is.
- Date posted
- 4y
I’ve seen some support groups that are for ocd sufferers and their families. You may want to try attending one or two with them so they can learn about ocd from someone who’s not you, ask questions, and see other families who are doing a good job at being supportive and understanding.
- Date posted
- 4y
Getting my stubborn wife to go to something like that would be impossible. She already knows everything. You can't tell her anything, she thinks she knows whats up. She has never really got it!
- Date posted
- 4y
Maybe couples counseling would help you in that case. Sounds like some better communication is in order.
- Date posted
- 4y
Sorry to hear that man especially coming from your wife i know that has to be hard.
Related posts
- Date posted
- 24w
My last and almost life long theme/sub-theme largely subsided recently and my ocd felt like it wasn’t even an issue. Then I went on winter break from uni and being alone made my mind come up with a whole new topic to obsess over. TLDR on my fears, my advisor wouldn’t email me back for a while about signing up for classes so my mind started to worry “what if he doesn’t in time and you can’t enroll this semester and you lose this whole life you just built and all these new friends” So when that issue was resolved my mind found other scarier ways I could be uprooted from my current life and friends that I’ve grown so attached to. Then my mind remembered back when I was struggling with false memories and scrupulosity and I essentially made a post on a forum 2 and a half years ago saying I did something or was convinced I did something that I never actually did. Now I’ve been spiraling about someone finding it reporting me and I either get seen as a horrible person or arrested or something over something I never actually did but “admitted” to out of fear of going to hell. My mind won’t let it go and keeps finding new reasons for it to be “valid” “logical” or even inevitable. I feel like it’s just hanging over my head and I can never rest easy. Especially when I try to focus on my daily tasks or plan for the future I get this horrible flair up of “why plan for the future when this could come back in that future and you get uprooted from all of it” my mind won’t rest without certainty being uprooted won’t happen but certainty doesn’t exist, at least not with ocd. This sucks and I miss being care free.
- Date posted
- 21w
Medication for OCD? Hello all, 19 male here, this seems like a cool community that isn’t nearly as triggering as reddit. I have pretty severe bouts of existential thinking or fear of going crazy ( psychosis ) after some pretty heavy mushroom trips a few years ago, I know logically I should be fine but I do know what it’s like to lose it and it’s scary. Currently I deal with relationship focused OCD, it’s all day from before I even open my eyes. I want things to work out with my girlfriend badly. Also I can come close to a panic attack sometimes which perpetuates everything. Anyway, I mention the fear of going crazy because the way my anxiety/derealization makes me feel is that I’m not mentally stable cause I feel out of it or unreal. I saw that a lot of anxiety and depression medication can cause psychosis and I feel like I could use some help in getting ahead of my OCD because the compulsions are had not to give into when I’m in such distress/not knowing. Plus overall I just feel like I have no idea how I feel about close to anything. Anyone relate about that ?
- Date posted
- 15w
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
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