OCD what helped you?

[Ocdhell]

I have OCD and it’s starting to really piss me off. Does anyone have any advice or tips.

Some more info:

• It started mildly years ago although I didn’t know it was called OCD back then (probably in my teens with checking etc)

-it got terrible after the birth of my first baby. I suffer from intrusive thoughts. Mainly surrounding harm. I was absolutely horrified about the thoughts! I have a classic case: having the thought, obsessing over it, checking behaviours/avoiding

-driving is one issue I’ve had for years. I think I could hit people in my car, the thought disturbs me, I then did behaviours like circling back to check. Now I just don’t drive.

-I avoid cooking (in case I make people sick), driving, being alone. I’m slow at work due to checking stuff. I check doors and switches. It’s bloody exhausting.

-I have had CBT which I know does help. I will try to dig out my notes from my previous sessions.

-I have several self help books

-it came back after birth of subsequent kids... but I kept it fairly under control.

-I have just had a terrible episode of it last week, I had a brief thought of “this could happen” completely out of the blue, in terms of harming strangers. Then that was it, I’m on day 6 of believing I’m a terrible person, trying to remember exactly what happened when I had the thought, I can’t remember so I maybe think I’ve done the terrible thing and blocked it out, vivid thoughts of me going to prison, a sense of doom, like it’s the last few days I have at home with my kids, wishing I could just die so the feeling could go, I want to badly go back and check etc etc.

What is next? Has anyone successfully gotten rid of OCD forever?

Has anyone had success with medication? I’m also scared of medicine and rarely take it as I always think of worst case scenario... what if I drop it and kids eat it etc etc. How ironic!

My family don’t get it. They think ocd is cleaning

My husband is great and he’s been wonderful at supporting me.

My plan is:
-self help and looking after myself more
-go to gp
-get booked on for refresher course for CBT

I know I need help! I’m just after any positive stories or advice to help me before I get the help I need.

Day one of fluoxetine. I’m feeling really nervous! I’m so so scared it won’t agree with me or make me worse!

@Ocdhell it might make you feel a bit wobbly to begin with but that's normal. It's unlikely to make you worse in my experience. What dosage are you on?

I’m on 20mg. I hope it makes me feel better. This week after a particularly bad week in terms of recognising just how bad my ocd has got. I kind of feel like I have lost the zest for life. I just feel really strange. A bit like I’m not quite in my body. Like there is no joy even though from an outsiders point of view I should be incredibly happy. I definitely do not feel myself. And actually I’m not sure I can remember what my “normal” is. I have recalled times that I showed ocd symptoms in my teens. Well I’m nearly 40 now!

@GoatsBroccoli what were the bits that helped with the intrusive thoughts mainly, dd12 has ocd and cbt worked miracles a few months ago and just the last week she’s said she’s had thoughts she’s going to die. She batted them away and dealt with it that way and I’m keen to find all tools that may help her.

It’s not helpful but I was given Prozac some years ago and it made me feel completely numb and detached. I really did not get used to or like the feeling but compared to being constantly anxious, it’s your line to draw
The adrenaline from anxiety is very very tiring. This could give you a break from it

I woke up from a very horrible realistic dream about one of my children on Saturday morning (her health) and it’s ruined my weekend somewhat, I haven’t felt like going out and feel it’s been a bit of a knock back. I have become very hermit like in the last year or so and don’t really socialise at all doing anything much out of work/kids. I am generally happy that way but then I don’t have the best support network because of it!

Fluoxetine definitely. Plus CBT.

@MegCleary I'm really sorry to hear about your dd, it must be really tough for you too. When I was at that age and struggling, it would have been such a huge help to have a parent to help me with it. It's great you're there to help her.

I don't remember the specifics of the things I wrote now, it was more that I had to read around the condition lots and it made me understand ocd really well so that then when an intrusive thought did come, I recalled something from my essay that explained it and it made me stop the obsessive cycle because I was able to understand what was going on.
I remember searching on the Internet and stumbling across alsorts of useful bits, it was the process of writing about it rather than the end result that was helpful.

YouTube is really good, there are some teens on there that make videos about their own struggles with ocd and how they are dealing with it.
Hope your dd is OK

@GoatsBroccoli she’s improving day by day scary thoughts decreasing she watched a scary tv show and it’s got stuck but she’s dealing with it. Thank yiu

Hi ocdhell i know this is an old thread but I wondered how you are getting on? Are you ok?

Your OCD sounds EXACTLY like mine. Medication and a therapy called Exposure Response Prevention Therapy (ERPT) helped a lot but it has been a long process of good and bad patches for me. X