OCD- medicine

[Nea54]

hi. I’m about to start on medication in hope that this will help with my ocd. I developed ocd after my first child was born. How long did it take for you before the medicine started to kick in? I hope that someone has found help in using antidepressants.

And maybe you want to share how long it took before you felt better:)

Anyone?:)

I'm sorry - I have no experience myself with OCD and meds. Which one are you on? My daughter took them (sertraline) alongside CBT for OCD treatment and she got better gradually. I think the sertraline started helping relatively quickly but it was a while back now and I cannot remember clearly. I hope you feel better soon.

@dunant173 thank you so much for answering, and I’m so glad that it helped your daughter! :) Did she try therapy at first without medication? I have tried therapy,CBT, for a long time now, but unfortunately it hasn’t helped as much and that’s why I consider medicine along with therapy. So I’m actually really afraid that the medicine won’t help since I already tried CBT. I’ve got escitalopram :) Thank you so much:)

She started with the SSRI first but had a bad reaction to the first one so stopped. Then a couple of years later, they tried a new one with her alongside the therapy and that helped. She had a relapse a year or so ago and had a year on Sertraline and did well on that. She also had a short series of counselling - not CBT that time - and that also helped. The SSRI definitely helped calm her thoughts though. I suffer from anxiety and depression and have found SSRIs to be good in that regards so I hope it helps you.

Yes, about 3 weeks and the meds worked fantastically well.

@Supersimkin7 thank you for answering :) Was it antidepressants you used?
how did you felt that it worked?:)

I take citalopram and have had CBT and have thoroughly relapsed.

I take Venlafaxine OP. It really helps me.

@MsGoodenough Thank you for your answer. I’m so sorry to hear that! So after you started on the medication, it has been worse? Have you just started the medication, could it be the first weeks?

@Hotpinkangel19 Thank you so much for answering me:) May I ask how they have helped you with OCD?:)

I've been on the medication for about 20 years! I'm coming to the conclusion I'm incurable.

@dunant173 Thank you for sharing this. So glad that your daughter is feeling better, and that is has helped with your anxiety and depression as well. I hope I’m lucky that it will help me too.

@MsGoodenough Oh, I’m so sorry to hear that! This is actually my worse fear, that this will never get better.. it is so exhausting.

I am considering asking to switch to venlafaxine

@MsGoodenough I really hope that it will help you. 20 years is a long time! Has it been horrible all this time?

Thank you for all the replies:)

No. It comes and goes. Sometimes I manage it; right now I'm not managing.

@MsGoodenough I’m so sorry to hear that. It’s awful.. I really hope you find something that works for you.

@MsGoodenough another thing that I’m thinking about when it comes to medication is, what happens the day I try to quit? Will I be back where I am now, will the medication work a long time, and what if I have to go on medication my hole life and they won’t work anymore. Many thoughts about this scares me.

one of my friends took saris and she said they number her emotions. She didn’t smile even. Is that the case for everyone?

Not wanting to upset you but I think the effectiveness of any treatment for OCD is very variable. 25 years of all sorts of meds and therapy and mine is no different at all.
I do have insight but that doesn’t stop it either.
Sometimes you just end up living with it.

@Mittens67 oh, I’m so sorry to hear that:( And it actually scares me because it is so exhausting. Thank you for your honest reply.

@Pinkfluffypencilcase I don’t know. My friend that’s been on SSRI hasn’t had that reaction:)

@Nea54 that’s good to know. It’s one of the things that put me off trying it.
I do recommend emdr though.