Ocd and medication

[Ocdmums]

Dd22yrs has been in contact for a while with online therapy. She said they are treating her for ocd. Main intrusive thoughts that are causing her a lot of overthinking in everyday life.
It seems they have said she needs to see a gp as serataline would help her a lot.
Has anyone any experience? This is all very new to me and don't even know where to start looking for advice but want to support my dd and help her feel better about herself. I noticed one of side effects was suicidal thoughts which did concern me as well as long term antidepressants.

There are several antidepressants that are also licensed for OCD, Sertraline is one of them. Unless OCD is mild, psychological therapy alone isn’t enough to bring it under control. A combination of PT and medication is the optimum treatment.

The small risk of suicidal ideation is in those suffering depression, not OCD.

OCD here, since childhood, found sertraline in my 40s. Game changer. I took the lowest dose for best part of 7 years. I'm recently off them buy wouldn't hesitate to go back on them if needs be. Never had suicidal thoughts and actually felt consistently happy on them. Struggled to cry though and I've enjoyed having more of an emotional range back recently but my mind and body was glad of the even keel and the time to heal.

My daughter suffers from OCD especially intrusive thoughts, and takes Fluoxetine to help with the symptoms. The medication has helped to lessen the symptoms and has made her life more manageable. She is having CBT also, which should hopefully help during flare ups.
We were reluctant to try medication as she was only 15 but it has really made a difference. She's 18 now and is thriving. Good luck x

My husband is on fluoxetine. It was essential in enabling him to engage with the therapy he needed (CBT). He has been on it for a number of years and has just had an increased dose and is awaiting additional therapy due to an exacerbation. It is no understatement to say the medication along with the therapy saved our marriage and my husband’s relationship with his daughter.

Untreated/under treated OCD is like having a horrible bully in your head the whole time that you can’t escape, it can be horrific. Wishing your daughter all the best.

thank you for all these replies. They have been really helpful. Can I ask if your children/partners need to avoid alcohol. Just something I saw on google. I know worse thing to look at but without knowing anyone its all I have had.
She doesn't exactly drink lots(my student days were much more pub filled than hers ever have been) but is it something she would need to avoid?

I have severe OCD, also general anxiety and depression, and antidepressants are, for me, necessary. I have gone years at a time without them but eventually end up in crisis every time, usually from OCD.

At the moment, citalopram is working for me, have been on 20mg for almost 3 years and may increase it soonish. It is a game changer for me, but different ones work for different people.

I also had CBT a few years ago but I think ADs are what make the biggest difference. I drink alcohol, but very, very little. I did not have suicidal thoughts but was in my 40s then so less risky than your daughter's age.

I've always found low dose antidepressants break me out of ruminating thoughts. I'm just on 10mg.

I'd recommend starting small e.g 5mg for a week. I upped mine on a Friday as that gave me the weekend to adjust.

I've usually found that a tipping point comes at about 3 weeks in - with a wobble (I've found myself sobbing at the GP before) - it's not uncommon before they start to work. Hence why going up slowly is good. GP was very reassuring as thought I was going mad.

I'm now about 6 weeks in and its brilliant. Follow GP/pharmacists advice basically.

Agree that less is more with alcohol. It is going to suppress/depress mood a little and could make the ADs a little less effective the following day or two.

Setraline has been a game changer for me! I avoided alcohol while I was getting used to it but now drink as I did before (moderately in general with the very occasional big night out!) and it's not an issue. The first few weeks were pretty horrible tbh but once I got used to it it has made a big difference.

My son was being treated by a private therapist for OCD and she referred him to a private psych. He has been titrated up to 200 of Sertraline and it has been life changing. He was close to having to leave uni. I wish I’d sorted it earlier but he was med avoidant before. Said psych told us the dose needed to be high to be effective.

Alcohol does affect the efficacy of AD.
Its okay to drink alcohol with them, but you may not get the full effect/benefit.

200mg of Sertraline is the therapeutic dose for OCD and the combination of CBT and Sertraline is considered gold standard. Glad it's making such a difference to your son.

It really is. I was so scared as was he before but the difference has been amazing. So proud of my son for pushing through. He has autism, and adhd and has had severe OCD for years so it was quite entrenched .He had a wobble a week in of being scared of the meds but he took it day by day( the psych emailed him which helped hugely) and he saw the therapist who is so patient and then it was like a gradual improvement until he reached full titration. It had to be his choice and when he was ready.