So I have health OCD. One of the ways it manifests is that I am terrified to take any new medication. It doesn't matter if its prescribed for a doctor or just a supplement. I have had some bad experiences with medication in the past. So I had my yearly physical the week before last. I talked to my doctor about possibly trying something for my anxiety/panic attacks. I tried Buspar a few years ago. It did nothing for my anxiety and gave me headaches. I do not want to take anything addictive. So I asked her if she could recommend some supplements. Last year, she recommended I start taking a B vitamin for my depression and it really helped. She gave me a print out. She also mentioned that a lot of people use Ashwagandha for anxiety. I have done some research on that already. There are a lot of positive reviews on Amazon. So I found out that was rated really high and bought it. It arrived on Thursday or Friday. I put off taking it. So this morning I decided I was going to take it. My OCD was going crazy. What if it makes me throw up? What if my throat closes up? What if it doesn't work? What if its been tampered with? What if it kills me? I ignored the thoughts and swallowed it with my other pills. I feel like that was a major win.

Hiii - hope everyone is having a good day! Has anyone found any type of medication or supplements helpful with thinking sooo deeply about everything and intrusive thoughts? I’m in therapy + doing erp but my brain in this relapse of ocd just thinks sooo deep into my brain and i can’t seem to not to do it pull myself out. Like I’m just paranoid. An example would be if i simply look at my arm I’ll think so deeply about it like what’s under my arm what’s it look like inside etc. but if anyone not in this cycle looks at their arm they’ll be like hmm ok cool my arm and move on w their day. Just looking to see if anyone has had a similar experience of what I’m feeling rn.

I’m new to treatment and only realized I have OCD a few months ago. I went through a tough and abusive marriage and ended up getting divorced. I had my first panic attack several years ago and ended up needing to go on Lexapro. This helped me significantly and allowed me to leave my partner. Several years later and I decided to stop Lexapro because I thought I was good to go. I’m in a very healthy relationship, have a great job, friends/family, go to the gym and have a wonderful life. It’s been about a year off the meds and I’ve had some panic, but I’ve been able to manage it. For some reason, the last three weeks has been really difficult for me. I have different spirals and different thought processes: what if I’m schizophrenic? What if I have a deeper mental disorder? What if I hurt someone? What if I need to leave my partner? What if I end up becoming so depressed that I end up hurting myself? My brain just goes from one what if to the next and once I conquer one, the next one pops up with even more intensity. I started taking NAC and inositol and I’m taking saffron during the day because I really don’t wanna go on back on medication but sometimes my thoughts scare me and I’m convinced that I’m not gonna get better and I know that’s just the OCD loop, but I’m wondering if this resonates with anyone else!

I am having an appointment with my psychiatrist this afternoon and I am obsessing about what to do with my medication. I think it’s also very ocd like obsessing. I am currently on 30mg mirtazapine. Ive been on this for years (because of insomnia, anxiety and depression) (15mg) and after we tried to switch to another (amitryptiline) because of nerve pain, I went down the road of insomnia and later on ocd again. So I am back on mirtazapine, and weaning off of the amitryptiline. This is/was a very traumatic experience. Because the switch caused a mental breakdown. Now my psychiatrist has mentioned to up the mirtazapine to 45mg. And my obsessive self has done a lot of research and a lot is saying that the higher the dose, the more you can experience anxiety. And for ocd it’s obviously not the first choice. I am obsessing all morning about it. I am too scared to go up. But I am also too scared to try another and to wean myself of off mirtazapine. I feel stuck at this point. Taking two meds is also not something I want. I could really use some words of encouragement right now I think. 🥹