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.

Hey friends, I hope you all are well. I just wanted to check in and ask people's experiences about being on medication. I have had OCD pretty much my whole life, just got recently diagnosed 4 months ago and my therapist recommended that I get on meds for it so I have a psychiatrist appointment set up. I'm a little apprehensive about getting on them, but I've realized that I do have some sort of chemical imbalance in my brain that plays a part in my OCD and anxiety. I would love to hear anyones experiences or words of encouragement. Thank you, I hope you all are well.

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 ?

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