Hi I'm new to this board. I'm 35 years old and I just got diagnosed with OCD. I fell into a severe depression and my psychiatrist says that I probably picked up OCD. I've been on medication about 3 months. I'm taking Paxil (60 mg) 3 months and Risperdal (1 mg) about a month. I have obsessive thoughts about hurting my kids. It's been about 4 months now. 1 month with medication, and 3 months with the meds. My psychiatrist suggested that I switch medications, but I'm afraid to do this. I'm afraid that probably the other meds (Zoloft, Prozac) may not work. This has been a long and hard journey. I started Behavioral Therapy about 3 weeks ago, and I hope this will help. Just wanted to get some info on the switching of medications.
hi, i tried many diff meds one of which was paxil which i will never touch again but thats a diff story. i have had such HUGE HUGE help with celexa. there are so little side effects, mainly for 2 weeks when u start u yawn a lot and feel a bit cloudy in the head but now i dont even realize im on it. many of the drugs i took before did NOTHING for me but made me worse. I have been on it for over a yr now and if i felt my ocd was at a 10 it is now at a 2!!! it has been my savour(sp?) and couldnt imagine being the basket case i was before. Alot of people seem to live like this(with ocd and depression) and dont realize that even something like this helps so so much!! pls try this one it really does help!
Thank you so much for replying to my post. I will be seeing my psychiatrist next week and I will talk to her about switching meds. I can't believe I picked this disorder at 35
Hey, EsperanzayFe! I'm sorry to hear that you're having such trouble with the illness. You mentioned that you don't think that Zoloft will work. I'm on 150 mg of Zoloft, and from my personal experience, it doesn't eliminate obsessions or compulsions, but it does greatly reduce the number of hours a day that I obsess as well as the distress the obsessions cause me. It doesn't work for my panic attacks at all, however. The reason I like Zoloft is that it isn't habit-forming and I'm deathly afraid of becoming addicted to something. Personally, I think Zoloft is better than Paxil for OCD and Paxil is better than Zoloft for panic disorder and/or panic attacks. The bad thing about Paxil is that I've heard so many stories of people suffering from withdrawal symptoms if they stop taking it or if they miss a dose. Still, if Paxil's helping you, continue with it. Good luck!
-GatsbyLuvr1920-
P.S. I just started CBT about three weeks ago, too!
Thank you so much for replying to my post Gatsby. I've been on Paxil for about 3 months - my psychiatrist has slowly increased the dosage from 20 to 40 to 60mg, and she also prescribed Risperdal to augment the Paxil. The meds have helped me with my Panick attacks and Anxiety, but somehow my intrusive thoughts keep coming. I've started the Behavioral Therapy, and I'm praying that hopefully it will work. This OCD robs me of my happiness, and not to many people understand it. I'm just grateful that my psychiatrist was able to diagnose the problem soon. This is all new to me, and it's been hard.
But thank you so much for your input.
I am 30... do you really think we "pick" our disorders? Well mine started when I was in my teens and kept getting worse over the years, but finally a few years ago I did get tremendous help from medication (Prozac, in my case), and I would say I am doing very well now!
Kathryn thank you so much for your advice. I'll be seeing my psychiatrist and I will be talking to her about switching meds. In my previous email, I meant that I probably got OCD during my severe depression. I'm also seeing a Behavioral Therapist, and he suggested reading 'Brain Lock'. It's a good book, and he also gave me some mental exercises to do.
I'm so glad that you are doing well. That's give me hope.
I am 37 and was just diagnosed with OCD this year. In fact, it started in February, several weeks after I turned 37 which was in January. However, the psychologist suspects that it was there all along since childhood with some of the different obsessions I had described to him when I was growing up. It's just back then nobody knew much about it as we do now. Anyway, I visited my regular doctor and he first put me on Paxil and that didn't go over real well because it made me hallucinate. Then he put me on Prozac and that didn't help either because it made me hallucinate also. Neither one of these SSRI's helped me much with obsessive thoughts. Then he put me on Celexa and since then I rarely hallucinante. I still have obsessive thoughts but now there are breaks during the day where the thoughts are not there. Rather I go through the regular "episodes" of OCD. But I don't sit there and have obsessive thoughts 24/7 like I used to. I would definately recommend to give Celexa a try. I am going back to the Doctor tomorrow and we are going to discuss how the Celexa is working. I might ask him if there is a possibility of giving me a "booster" drug to strenghthen the Celexa to eliminate the obssesive thoughts even further just to see what he thinks. I'll find out but I definately want to stay on the Celexa. I would say give it a try if I were you.
TakeThatOCd, thank you for replying to my post and sharing your experience with the meds. I'll see my pshychiatrist next week, and we will be talking about the other options I have, which are Zoloft, Prozac, and Celexa. I'll be seeing my Behavioral Therapist tomorrow, and it seems like the mental exercises that he's given me to do are helping. I also have a lot of faith that God will give me the strength to fight this disease. I've also read "Brain Lock" by Jeffrey Schartwz (good info), and I've purchased a new book "Getting Control" by Lee Baer that I just started reading today - these are the books that my BT recommended. I'm glad you're doing better with the Celexa.
Thanks for your input, and God Bless! I'll keep you posted on my meds.
I've had OCD since I was 25 and am now 53. Two years ago I started Lexapro and feel like it turned my life around. They first tried me on Zoloft, Prozac, and Celexa with side effects and not much help. If anyone hasn't tried Lexapro, I recommend it. I felt better in 3 weeks.
Thank you Nmor1234 for your input, and I'm glad Lexpro is working for you. I'm currently on 60 mg of Paxil and 1mg of Risperdal, and I'm starting to feel a little better. I've started doing Behaviral Therapy about 4 weeks ago, and I think it's working too. I'll see my Behavioral therapist on Friday to see what other mental exercises he'll have me do. I think I'll be sticking with the Paxil since I'm starting to progress a bit. I'm glad that you're doing good.
