What is it like If medication works?? - Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (OCD) Message Board

Toribelle · 02-28-2005, 01:45 PM

Is it like a huge calm after the storm? Are you able to function again? I was just diagnosed and I was abusing opiates - they helped me find an inner clam and a focus, but now I'm forced to deal with it with no "mind-numbing" and I realize what it was I was running from and I wonder if medication really can make this stop? I understand that I have some behavior things to get under sontrol - but without getting some "quiet" I don't think I can handle any of this...

It's all so mind blowing - haivng to look at yourself form a whole new perspective - and wondering what's ME and what's IT. Make sense? Help!

Thanks!
Tori

lachesis · 02-28-2005, 03:50 PM

for me, a combination of medicine and rather intense therapy helped amazingly with my obsessions and my compulsions, and it was so much easier to sift through what parts of me were, well, actually me, and what parts were keeping me from reaching my full potential. however, personally i have much deeper issues than ocd, so getting rid of that seemed to be more relieving me of a symptom than a cause, but that was also helpful in discovering what it truly was that i needed to work on, and for me to know that i didn't have OCD, but "obsessive compulsive tendencies" fueled by other things.

still, while i chose to be on the medication, that aspect was an amazing relief. unfortunately, meds just don't seem to agree with me :P

EDIT: i would also personally recommend meds not as THE cure for ocd, but as as something to coincide with and strengthen therapy

jack65 · 02-28-2005, 04:06 PM

When I started on the OCD meds after about 5 weeks I gradually started to feel less tense and less obsessive and that continued to improve for about 8 more weeks more when it reached it's peak. It was a slow process and very subtle but looking back I can see how much better I feel than before I went on the medicine. Good luck!

snb82us · 02-28-2005, 04:28 PM

Going on medication was the best and worst thing I ever did. I feel "normal" and can actually control my thoughts and I get sleep because I can also control my "mind racing". That's the good part, the bad part is that I feel like I am dependent on them. This became even more apparent last week as I reacted badly to a new medication (for depression, anxiety and ocd) and stopped taking all meds completely while awaiting a doctors appointment. The main thing is that I can distinguish my ocd thoughts from reality (i.e., I'm not going to die if I don't reorganize my whole closet at 2am). Hope this helps. Sorry if this doesn't make too much sense, I've been feeling crappy lately....

Toribelle · 02-28-2005, 05:37 PM

Thanks alot for your help. It gives me a bit of hope. I was so elated when I realized that the was a name for what was happening to me and that there was medication and therapy to help, but now I'm left feeling very hopeless.

I maybe read too much. I think I'm really confused now. I don't have any rituals - I'm much more obsessional and everything I obsess about is some form of an insecurity - I know that this form is harder to treat and that scares me.

I also abused meds so now I can't trust myself with anything to relieve acute anxiety and I have NO idea how to live like this. I have an appointment with my shrink tomorrow - so hopefully he can clear some of this up. He tried me on Anafranil right away after he realized that I had OCD, but I had a amjorly bad reaction to the first small does so I'm still on a strictly antidepressant.

I feel awful - and very disillusioned.

Thanks agian for your help guys.

Tori