What’s your experience with medication?

Hi NOCD fam! Loving connecting with you all. I’m wondering what your experiences are with medications? The reason I ask is because 7 months ago, I got a promotion and everything in my life seemed to be going well so I decided to start coming off my long term dose of Miritazipine. BIG MISTAKE. For the past 7 months, I have had the worst real events OCD. I went back on my medication ages and ages ago, but my symptoms have still not come down. I don’t know if it’s the stress of the new job or what, but I’m exhausted. Prior to this, I had not identified as having OCD. Though, looking back, I always had it in a mild form that became stronger in small episodes. I thought I was simply a hypochondriac, but I realise now that I was struggling with health and contamination OCD and had also had episodes of symmetry and checking. I had never experienced real events OCD until o stopped the meds and got the new job and it is THE WORST

pureolife

Date posted: 2d

I’ve personally learned that I just need to be on a maintenance dose of 25mg of Lexapro. When I lower or come off, I suffer. One of my biggest ocd spirals happened when I got completely off. It’s easy to wonder if you’d never started maybe this wouldn’t happen, but I think that the meds are actually preventing these events. And when we get off because we “feel fine now,” we don’t know how to exist in an unmedicated version of our brains anymore. Going back on helps a little, but it never gets you back to where you were on its own. You need to do a little work to get the ocd back under control. Usually with a combination of ERP, mindfulness, and ACT. You will eventually feel like yourself again. And yes extra stress from a new job can easily make all of this feel more overwhelming. Get extra sleep. Less coffee and booze. Eat well. You’ll get there.

Bassfishing

Date posted: 2d

I’m dealing with a similar situation right now, I was fine for two years with just small OCD spikes then I stopped taking my meds correctly and then I skipped two weeks in December and had a terrible spiral I still haven’t gotten out of even with restarting my Pristiq however I’m only 35 doses back into it not sure if I need to change meds or up my dose

anabanana1

Date posted: 2d

2mg of abilify has already worked wonders for me. It’s not usual to do monotherapy with it but for me and the type of OCD I was dealing with (like actual delusional-theme intrusive thoughts that felt real even though logically I knew they weren’t) it was the only thing that was gonna work. Meds take awhile to work. I still had feelings of derealization during the first 4 days of abilify by the end of the first week going into the second week I was already all better. Today is day 16 and the annoying side effects like constipation, acne, restlessness and the munchies are going away slowly. I am excited to move up to 5mg to truly get the full benefits. Medication can be trial or error for ocd. For me besides medication what’s been helping is journaling, going to bed early and getting lots of steps in has been game changing. SSRIs made me feel terrible so I found my perfect match with an antipsychotic, I would not be here giving this testimony if I hadn’t been led to abilify. Yes medication can work, but for many of us it’s trial and error. You will find your perfect match.

Tea and Honey

Date posted: Yesterday

I stopped taking Prozac for a while. Big mistake too. Went back on

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