OCD and anxiety

[PILMAN]

I was wondering if anyone else here suffers from obsessive compulsive disorder or anxiety ?

I have much difficulty as I am on medication for OCD due to intrusive thoughts and it can make things sometimes very difficult although the medication seems to make things manageable. It seems that the problem is mainly doubt or "fight or flight" mentality that causes me to avoid things that trigger problematic thoughts.

There seems to be some sort of confusion over OCD that it means only individuals who obsessively need to clean their hands or organize things, but it is much more complex. If anyone here has the same issues, anything that has worked for you ? Thanks.

[Pennyknife808]

I have bad ADHD and OCD i would get sooo hyper and then my OCD would make me go Fing crazy over the smallest thing my wife messed up my hair years ago and i FREEKED crying and all lol later down the road i started smoking weed for fun (basicly) and after just a few days i relized it was gone just like i have to smoke danm near everyday and it is illegal but i just do it at home and no one bugs me been 2 years without an "episode"

[amiga1200]

sometimes, when it's writing up a torrent item, or creating archives (that packed, then i discovered the contents wasn't as planned) and even post responses full of typos, keyboard folders for sure.
in my case, remedy is fast acting when pot is nearby, followed by a bong and a kitchen blowtorch.

[elfshadowreaper]

The biggest question is are you seeing a quality psychiatrist? My cousin, who is really like a daughter to me, has really bad ocd and her psychiatrist is a Godsend. She's helped her so much over the years. So unless you have someone who understands ocd and that its more than just hand washing or counting you're just not going to get the help you need.

That being said the only thing I have personal experience with is ADD.

[PILMAN]

The biggest question is are you seeing a quality psychiatrist? My cousin, who is really like a daughter to me, has really bad ocd and her psychiatrist is a Godsend. She's helped her so much over the years. So unless you have someone who understands ocd and that its more than just hand washing or counting you're just not going to get the help you need.

That being said the only thing I have personal experience with is ADD.

I see a psychiatrist, I currently take Zoloft and klonopin along with lunesta as the ssris cause insomnia. There are side effects as a result, but it does make my life manageable.

The issue with true OCD is that what happens is the brain creates and obsessional pattern, so for example, the reason why you hear mostly about individuals who need to clean their hands repeatedly is because their brain keeps telling them they must do so to feel clean and so the compulsion is washing the hands to prevent the repeat of the feeling of uncleanliness, these thoughts will become obsessive that it becomes a reoccurring pattern.

There are other forms of OCD known as pure or harm OCD which can usually be intrusive thoughts that can range anywhere from violent obsessions, sexual obsessions, or destructive obsessions, this doesn't mean the individual wants to do these things, actually most individuals with OCD will generally do everything in their power to make sure that none of these thoughts can occur by suppressing them or creating a compulsion to prevent the intrusive thought from taking control.

Most OCD sufferers realize their thoughts are irrational and that the intrusive thoughts are against their morals and ethics, but the brain continues to trigger and so this fight or flight model occurs where someone with OCD will attempt to avoid what causes the obsessive thoughts, so if a person was afraid of hitting someone with their car, they would avoid driving in their car or they may constantly return to make sure the bump or noise was not someone they just hit to reassure themselves.

OCD is more about doubt and reassurance more than anything.

The issues I have are constantly repeating thoughts of things that i fear or worry about, and as a result, I need to create compulsions or continuously do something like a thumbs up or clenching my hands whenever a thought occurs, and has resulted sometimes in social isolation. I'd say I've make some significant improvements and most of this is just in my head, but it can get downright depressing at times, you feel practically possessed and as if you are doing every horrible thing in the world that could destroy you and worrying nonstop despite realizing how irrational the thoughts are.

It seems lack of sleep creates more issues and being around other people.

[amiga1200]

fuck me!
STIFFERS! (or gargoylers.)
zoloft?
and many more: by zyprexa, olanzapine, that shit can KILL!
carbamazapine, procycladine, haliperidol, lithium (aka: thorazine/liquid COSH) dothiepine (no longer manufactured) clozapine/clozaril...
and a fucktonne more.
it's why i turned to weed, i froze up in the middle of the goddman road crossing it, almost crossed out by a bus.. ...
not to mention the physical PAIN that crap induced, fucks the bones. (or, prozac, a chemical trigger.)
...
i dunno anymore, try and do it right, get fucked by the folks (i was utterly STUPID to trust in the first place, lessons learned, only live twice.) in positions of life and death/FREEDOM/MOBILITY.
do it wrong, live longer, BETTER, but perhaps deal with the FILTH on occasion...
a fair trade in the end, to be clean, and in control of my faculties.
[edit]
pharma can kiss my ass!

[PILMAN]

fuck me!
STIFFERS! (or gargoylers.)
zoloft?
and many more: by zyprexa, olanzapine, that shit can KILL!
carbamazapine, procycladine, haliperidol, lithium (aka: thorazine/liquid COSH) dothiepine (no longer manufactured) clozapine/clozaril...
and a fucktonne more.
it's why i turned to weed, i froze up in the middle of the goddman road crossing it, almost crossed out by a bus.. ...
not to mention the physical PAIN that crap induced, fucks the bones. (or, prozac, a chemical trigger.)
...
i dunno anymore, try and do it right, get fucked by the folks (i was utterly STUPID to trust in the first place, lessons learned, only live twice.) in positions of life and death/FREEDOM/MOBILITY.
do it wrong, live longer, BETTER, but perhaps deal with the FILTH on occasion...
a fair trade in the end, to be clean, and in control of my faculties.
[edit]
pharma can kiss my ass!

Honestly I have never smoked marijuana , nor have I had a desire to, however I do take a libertarian stance in regards to it. In regards to this, my career path would be destroyed, and so it will never be an option from a legal standpoint or from a career aspect. I have no doubt that alcohol is much more serious than marijuana however.

Yes ssris are serious stuff, I've been on them for maybe over a year now, the first time I took them, it made me feel emotionless, like a robot and I felt really nothing. It was very hard on my relationship with my wife id say the first month or two and I became very irritable and angry or almost like I felt like I had become upset over very minor things. It started off at 50 mg, went to 100 then stabilized around 150. Going off of them is nearly impossible as the withdrawal effects are really nasty.

It does reduce sporadic thoughts but it practically kills the ability to think and my intelligence feels much less than before I was on the drugs.

I've always had minor OCD but it became unbearable sometime around the end of 2013, I started having issues in the airport and on my flight, just really awful intrusive thoughts and my ability to differentiate, I really don't know what triggered it to the level it did, but it was very difficult to function on a basic level. I had problems talking on the phone, driving my car, being around people, I felt like everything I was doing was wrong or illegal even though I knew that I could have not possibly have done anything, constant questions of "what if this happened what if that happened". It's not well understood if OCD is biological or mental.

[amiga1200]

true, and why some of us stay clear through experience.
it obviously does vary by individual.
if the meds you're on work, no reason to change it yet.
advice falls short for anybody who could use it, not that i'm an (qualified, right!) expert.
and too subjective.
psychology is one option i tend to resort to, it's psychiatry that's to be handled with kid-gloves.
in any case, hope it works out, mental well being is virtually everything.
without it, all goes to shit.
good luck.

[elfshadowreaper]

I felt like everything I was doing was wrong or illegal even though I knew that I could have not possibly have done anything, constant questions of "what if this happened what if that happened".

That sounds exactly what my cousin was struggling with. She never expressed it to me because she kinda puts me on a pedestal because I'm the biggest father-figure she has and she doesn't want me to think any less of her. Which I never would think any less of her. But she would ask my mom "Is it ok if I kill myself" and my mom got to the point where she would tell her yes because my cousin wouldn't let her say know. She constantly feared God judging her and wondering if things were sins. So she definitely had the "illegal" component to her OCD. But what is so strange to me about OCD(coming from an outsider) is how quickly the obsessions will change. My cousin could be obsessed about not being able to leave a rug on the floor for one week, but the next week she'd have a completely different obsession.

What makes OCD(and most forms of anxiety, but none as bad as OCD) so difficult to communicate is that people without OCD(myself included) just don't understand what goes through the heads of people with it.

[south carmain]

I have non-compulsive OCD.

[PILMAN]

I felt like everything I was doing was wrong or illegal even though I knew that I could have not possibly have done anything, constant questions of "what if this happened what if that happened".

That sounds exactly what my cousin was struggling with. She never expressed it to me because she kinda puts me on a pedestal because I'm the biggest father-figure she has and she doesn't want me to think any less of her. Which I never would think any less of her. But she would ask my mom "Is it ok if I kill myself" and my mom got to the point where she would tell her yes because my cousin wouldn't let her say know. She constantly feared God judging her and wondering if things were sins. So she definitely had the "illegal" component to her OCD. But what is so strange to me about OCD(coming from an outsider) is how quickly the obsessions will change. My cousin could be obsessed about not being able to leave a rug on the floor for one week, but the next week she'd have a completely different obsession.

What makes OCD(and most forms of anxiety, but none as bad as OCD) so difficult to communicate is that people without OCD(myself included) just don't understand what goes through the heads of people with it.

It's pretty difficult to explain because even I didn't fully understand OCD and just assumed that it was some hand washing ritual. For a long time I had some minor symptoms but waved them off, every now and then I'd have a conflicting thought or run in sentence in my head that I thought i'd said something else on a phone. I didn't really notice the symptoms until after I had gallbladder surgery and was on a diving trip in Colombia off the coastal area on San Andres Island.

There were other situations I tried to make sense if maybe something else had triggered it, if maybe exposure to black mold at the old house had caused it or some of the chemicals used here during the BP oil spill as there were numerous reports of neurological issues. There's been reports of OCD found in victims of strokes or sometimes brain tumors which I found interesting, on the other hand while I certainly would never ever suggest this, one man actually seems to have cured himself of OCD unintentionally by shooting himself in the head, it appears it caused damage to the frontal lobe and the conditions did not return. Granted this is a extreme option, it's interesting that the damage to the frontal lobes caused the brain to retrain it's self and ended up getting out of a vicious cycle of repeating a obsession.

I didn't notice any of my issues becoming severe until I'd say July of 2013 when I became fearful of driving and thinking I hit something and it got to a point of speculating all the what if scenarios, it was as if suddenly everything I had enjoyed had become a obstacle and was constantly worried about doing something wrong. Thankfully, I have a supportive wife who has helped me with exposure therapy and the issue has lessened to some minor annoyances and medication seems to have helped, but I am curious what exactly causes the issue. There is research into other technologies to control OCD, I was reading about something similar to a brain pacemaker which was a non intrusive surgery which sounded interesting.

[south carmain]

I felt like everything I was doing was wrong or illegal even though I knew that I could have not possibly have done anything, constant questions of "what if this happened what if that happened".

That sounds exactly what my cousin was struggling with. She never expressed it to me because she kinda puts me on a pedestal because I'm the biggest father-figure she has and she doesn't want me to think any less of her. Which I never would think any less of her. But she would ask my mom "Is it ok if I kill myself" and my mom got to the point where she would tell her yes because my cousin wouldn't let her say know. She constantly feared God judging her and wondering if things were sins. So she definitely had the "illegal" component to her OCD. But what is so strange to me about OCD(coming from an outsider) is how quickly the obsessions will change. My cousin could be obsessed about not being able to leave a rug on the floor for one week, but the next week she'd have a completely different obsession.

What makes OCD(and most forms of anxiety, but none as bad as OCD) so difficult to communicate is that people without OCD(myself included) just don't understand what goes through the heads of people with it.

It's pretty difficult to explain because even I didn't fully understand OCD and just assumed that it was some hand washing ritual. For a long time I had some minor symptoms but waved them off, every now and then I'd have a conflicting thought or run in sentence in my head that I thought i'd said something else on a phone. I didn't really notice the symptoms until after I had gallbladder surgery and was on a diving trip in Colombia off the coastal area on San Andres Island.

There were other situations I tried to make sense if maybe something else had triggered it, if maybe exposure to black mold at the old house had caused it or some of the chemicals used here during the BP oil spill as there were numerous reports of neurological issues. There's been reports of OCD found in victims of strokes or sometimes brain tumors which I found interesting, on the other hand while I certainly would never ever suggest this, one man actually seems to have cured himself of OCD unintentionally by shooting himself in the head, it appears it caused damage to the frontal lobe and the conditions did not return. Granted this is a extreme option, it's interesting that the damage to the frontal lobes caused the brain to retrain it's self and ended up getting out of a vicious cycle of repeating a obsession.

I didn't notice any of my issues becoming severe until I'd say July of 2013 when I became fearful of driving and thinking I hit something and it got to a point of speculating all the what if scenarios, it was as if suddenly everything I had enjoyed had become a obstacle and was constantly worried about doing something wrong. Thankfully, I have a supportive wife who has helped me with exposure therapy and the issue has lessened to some minor annoyances and medication seems to have helped, but I am curious what exactly causes the issue. There is research into other technologies to control OCD, I was reading about something similar to a brain pacemaker which was a non intrusive surgery which sounded interesting.

Have you tried CBT at all? It becomes quite manageable when you know how to.

[PILMAN]

I felt like everything I was doing was wrong or illegal even though I knew that I could have not possibly have done anything, constant questions of "what if this happened what if that happened".

That sounds exactly what my cousin was struggling with. She never expressed it to me because she kinda puts me on a pedestal because I'm the biggest father-figure she has and she doesn't want me to think any less of her. Which I never would think any less of her. But she would ask my mom "Is it ok if I kill myself" and my mom got to the point where she would tell her yes because my cousin wouldn't let her say know. She constantly feared God judging her and wondering if things were sins. So she definitely had the "illegal" component to her OCD. But what is so strange to me about OCD(coming from an outsider) is how quickly the obsessions will change. My cousin could be obsessed about not being able to leave a rug on the floor for one week, but the next week she'd have a completely different obsession.

What makes OCD(and most forms of anxiety, but none as bad as OCD) so difficult to communicate is that people without OCD(myself included) just don't understand what goes through the heads of people with it.

It's pretty difficult to explain because even I didn't fully understand OCD and just assumed that it was some hand washing ritual. For a long time I had some minor symptoms but waved them off, every now and then I'd have a conflicting thought or run in sentence in my head that I thought i'd said something else on a phone. I didn't really notice the symptoms until after I had gallbladder surgery and was on a diving trip in Colombia off the coastal area on San Andres Island.

There were other situations I tried to make sense if maybe something else had triggered it, if maybe exposure to black mold at the old house had caused it or some of the chemicals used here during the BP oil spill as there were numerous reports of neurological issues. There's been reports of OCD found in victims of strokes or sometimes brain tumors which I found interesting, on the other hand while I certainly would never ever suggest this, one man actually seems to have cured himself of OCD unintentionally by shooting himself in the head, it appears it caused damage to the frontal lobe and the conditions did not return. Granted this is a extreme option, it's interesting that the damage to the frontal lobes caused the brain to retrain it's self and ended up getting out of a vicious cycle of repeating a obsession.

I didn't notice any of my issues becoming severe until I'd say July of 2013 when I became fearful of driving and thinking I hit something and it got to a point of speculating all the what if scenarios, it was as if suddenly everything I had enjoyed had become a obstacle and was constantly worried about doing something wrong. Thankfully, I have a supportive wife who has helped me with exposure therapy and the issue has lessened to some minor annoyances and medication seems to have helped, but I am curious what exactly causes the issue. There is research into other technologies to control OCD, I was reading about something similar to a brain pacemaker which was a non intrusive surgery which sounded interesting.

Have you tried CBT at all? It becomes quite manageable when you know how to.

Cognitive Behavior Therapy? I haven't, I'm actually not overly familiar with it. If i recall, that is where an individual exposes themselves to situations they are uncomfortable with?

[south carmain]

That can be a part of it although not obligatory. It helps you to manage your anxiety and get rid of the intrusive thoughts by tackling the stress they cause.

The theory is that basically OCD is caused by the mind giving too much importance to the intrusive thoughts causing anxiety which in exchange amplifies the strength of the thoughts which in turn makes them more common and cause more anxiety. In CBT you will be learning how to break this vicious cycle which in turn will help reduce the OCD thoughts and improve your overall well being.