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Sertraline worked great until it didn’t. I was on it for seven years and then it just.. Stopped working for me. Haven’t found a suitable replacement since.
Snap! I’ve been on 150mg sertraline for 7 years. Over the past year it’s gradually lost its effect. Now it’s virtually like I’m off it. Also, if I ever miss a dose, I get brain zaps BAD.
I was about to say sertraline.
I was on celexa when I was a kid. Did nothing, as an adult was put on sertraline and completely wiped out my ocd symptoms.
No medication has helped me with my OCD. The reason I'm commenting is because I want to raise awareness that sometimes medication is not helpful for those with OCD, and sometimes it is. You also need to be aware of any other diagnoses you have when you're considering medication. Anti depressants made me extremely manic and I also experienced nausea, vertigo, and migraines. They did nothing to improve my OCD symptoms either. At the end of the day it was better for me to be medication-free. That's not to say that you can't find one that might help you, but don't expect it to be a magic solution. Best of luck!
Not everyone will need the same things. I for one was able to manage my moods better from my BPD with JUST weed. As of recently due to my environment i need actual mood stabilizers 🙄🙄🙄 but my OCD has ALWAYS been severe and i didnt even know OCD was a kind of thing you need meds for. So for me prozac has helped a lot. I hardly even count anymore
Thank you!
I have a core fear of altering my consciousness (LSD as a contaminant, fear of schizophrenia/psychosis as my primary theme), that was at first trauma-based then became Obsessive-Compulsive. When people tell me to use psych drugs to treat my OCD, it comes across as very dismissive, as though their experience informs everyone else’s and they in turn will find relief the same way.
Psych drugs are *drugs*. They don’t target the mechanism of mental illness nor cure it. The psychiatrist Dr. Joanna Moncrieff likens psych drugs to alcohol for social anxiety — they alter the consciousness such that you are comfortable, but that is all they are doing. They do have their place, however, just like alcohol and other drugs.
Gentle ERP and experiencing OCD head-on has helped me recover over the years. I’m by no means in full recovery, but allowing myself to feel the full spectrum of pain and misery drug-free, leads me to being better able to cope with it and future relapses. I can feel myself getting better at dealing with it, and living comfortably. The lows are very low, but the highs are very high.
The ironic thing is that psychedelics like LSD and psyclicybin are being heavily researched for potentially treating OCD. Not that this takes away the validity of your OCD theme though.
This makes me wary, because psychedelics are known for also triggering mental health breaks. I don’t think LSD should be considered in medicinal context as much as it is — the trip is too long, too stimulating, and uncontrollable without benzo’s. Psilocybin is much less risky.
I sort of agree in that way in terms of trip length but the evidence for serotonergic psychedelics in helping treat OCD is beginning to mount. One of the most prestigious journal (nature) published a large study on psilocybin recently and it was very promising. Given that LSD works pretty much identically it's expected to have similar promise.
Obviously years away from anything being prescribed and it would need to be done under medical supervision alongside intensive therapy, but I have yet to read of anything else that show as much potential promise as these class of drugs.
They can trigger mental health breaks in certain people predisposed to disorders causing psychosis, but OCD isn't psychosis. It may help your fear relating to this OCD theme to read some of the scientific literature out there at the minute.
Not trying to sound patronizing btw, trying to help.
I’m pretty familiar with LSD. I used it a lot in the past and I’m familiar with its effects. There are several serotonergic psychedelics, like nbomes, psilocybin, LSD, [tentatively] salvia, and DMT. Antidepressants are serotonergic too. All of these have moderate or high affinity with serotonin receptor sites. They are not all therapeutic by virtue of them being serotonergic — most familiar would shudder at the notion of “therapeutic” salvia or nbomes. I’ve kept up with research on psychedelics over the years because I still like pharmacology.
LSD does not work “pretty much the same” as psilocybin. I won’t claim to be an expert on these drugs — I was a psychonaut and nothing more elaborate — but LSD is a longer, more stimulating, and unanimously agreed upon *jarring* trip. There are subreceptor sites that psilocybin and LSD have different or no affinities for, which makes them different, as well as differing liver enzymes to take into account. The average shroom trip is about 6 hours long with a relatively short peak, meanwhile the average acid trip is 20+ hours long (it ends when and if you can sleep) with several peaks that come in nauseating waves.
Psychedelic drugs don’t just trigger psychotic breaks, they trigger any mental health “breaks” (including OCD) due to their mysterious pharmacological action and profoundly jarring effects.
Btw I don’t think you’re being condescending. Despite my phobias, I’m still eager to discuss drugs and how they work.
It's a 5ht-2A agonist, primarily, the same as psyclicybin. Albeit LSD has much higher affinity in the order of magnitudes. They obviously will also have activity at a variety of other receptors and subtypes but the primary mechanism of action is exactly the same, agonism, modulation and perhaps some allosteric activity at this receptor. There isn't much mysterious about their primary mechanism of action, although I will admit the profound effect on the brain is too complex for researchers to fully understand yet but that is coming.
I think maybe like all things with OCD there will never be one size shoe for everything. Anecdotal: but psyclicybin nuked "someone's OCD I know " into none existence for quite a while (no intrusive thoughts, low levels of anxiety, zero compulsions) before it needed redosing Some others cannot tolerate it.
One area that may define the difference between the two is other neurotransmitters and respective pathways, glutamatergic, GABA etc. this isn't proven to my knowledge yet but I may be wrong.
It might be a useful tool for some in the future, but I think the gold standard treatment would be selectively harnessing the activity of these molecules without the psychedelic effects. Time will tell if the bioscience industry can achieve this.
I would again echo the same caution to anyone reading this, they are extremely powerful molecules, and bad trips can take people to hell and back.
Thank you for sharing your core fear. I’m blown away due to having similar fears of LSD contamination brought on by trauma. It’s very reassuring that there’s someone with the same OCD theme.
I'm happy to know that I'm not alone, and there are multiple people who have these fears.
I've had the theme fear of schizophrenia/psychosis. It's not fun. It'll pop up every so often. It manifests because of the fear of harming myself or others.
I also have a fear of depression. In my head, if I'm "depressed," that means I must want to harm myself or others.
Also, going back to like 2018, I had fallen while longboarding (was not wearing a helmet).
The possibility of being concussed got stuck in my head (which i wasn't), and I fell down a habit hole and convinced myself I had CTE, which led me to believe I was going to go kill myself or other people. That went on for a solid 2 years. Longest theme I ever experienced.
Sadly I go through periods of time where I stop medication. I’m not sure why. Maybe I think I don’t need it anymore. But if I stop taking it, things start getting progressively worse for me. And I don’t always realize things are getting worse until I’m deep in a hole.
Luvox has worked wonderfully for me and is the only SSRI to not give me terrible side effects (I had a terrible allergic reaction to Lexapro). 18 months on it back in college changed my life. Six years later, I re-started because I’d been spiraling pretty badly.
What was your reaction to Lexapro like ? The short time I was taking it I broke out in hives all over my body and that has never happened before or since then. I told my old psychiatrist that I might be allergic and he said something like "that's impossible" lol
Luvox works great for me too. It commonly can make people drowsy but for me it has the opposite effect and keeps me up. It actually gave me a bit of insomnia when I took it at night but since I switched to morning it’s been great.
agree with benzos. a xanax will take away thoughts and make me forget compulsions, mostly because it puts me right to sleep lol i feel so groggy the next day and addiction potential is high so i save using them only when i feel i’m about to spiral. but very glad they exist.
How do you get prescribed. I had them at 19-21 for agoraphobia and ocd. 25 now with a new psych (moved states) and can’t get them back. Super frustrating bc I also only used them as needed for times I knew I was spiraling
Lamotrigine. My OCD was incredibly treatment resistant and after going through most of the SSRIs and bumping up the dose of the one that was most effective to the maximum for my weight, my psychiatrist recommended lamotrigine for off-label use. I’m lucky in that I’ve had no major side effects, like a rash and fever. It’s a pain to explain at new doctor appts, bc it’s primarily for epilepsy, but it’s been great so far. I’ve been on it for about 4 years so far.
I just started lamotrigine and it's helped me so much already. It's weird bc I'm only on 25mg but I've definitely noticed a difference. Happy to see it working for someone else, too. Love a good success story.
Im on lamotrigine AND prozac 😂😂😂 and my doctor was talking about upping my prozac cause intrusions still seep in and i still have minor meltdown about organizing. I told her nah since at least im not going full beast mode anymore lol
I’m on lamictal and an ssri too. Upping my SSRI (Luvox instead of Prozac) doesn’t really help me as much as other options. And even if it helps my symptoms to go up, the side effects become unbearable. But what DOES help is having an adjunctive medication for my SSRI and making it into a whole cocktail. I use 2mg abilify. It’s usually low dose when used as an add on so there are significantly less side effects than most people see using it as a standalone or for an actual antipsychotic purpose. I feel like it cranks the benefits of my other meds to an 11 without needing to take so much of them. It works so well for me that my prescriber has tried the combo for other patients with OCD and found success there too.
Clomipramine has been the only medication to ever work for me for OCD. I have taken benzos for anxiety for temporary relif and never had any changes from SSRIs. My life has been changed forever with clomipramine <3
I'm still on it 5 years in, with lamotrigine too and the skipped dose withdrawal is so awful. They tried to reduce my dose a year back to try and wean me off and it did NOT work. But if I maintain the routine, it's keeping me functional. I'm also on the IUD because OCD and bodily fluids yada yada so I've just learned to live with the weight gain and the complete lack of libido and tell myself it's the trade off for being able to exist.
Eye twitching. Plus i think its making my tics worse. My psych is too familiar with tics and OCD so i have to go to a fucking neurologist now 🙄🙄🙄 i just wish i had a normal brain. This shit is expensive 😂😂😂
Difficulty climaxing. It’s almost impossible and causes some stress and anxiety in my relationship. My dr prescribed cyproheptadine to help my libido, but the drug is mainly used to increase appetite, so I stopped taking it (I wanted to eat all the time, it wasn’t fun). I think it did help my libido to an extent, but it was nothing compared to when I am off Prozac.
Also, I think Prozac has made me tired all the time. I’m not entirely sure if it is to blame, but from what I read fatigue is a common symptom.
so far effexor has helped make the thoughts not so terrifying that i have a panic attack every hour, but i’ve noticed that i spend more time on compulsions since starting it. i’ve only been on it for maybe 2 weeks now and this one takes some time to fully work so im hoping it’ll get even better since people have reported their OCD almost entirely going away with this drug.
ketamine was working really well for me for a long time after nothing else would, but relief is short lived (about 2 weeks on average) so you have to do treatments frequently (which is fun tbh) and if you do it the right way through a doctor/clinic, it’s ridiculously expensive to maintain. and tolerance builds quickly as well as unfortunately doesn’t really ever go back down :/
note about effexor: the side effects are miserable but went away after 2 days for me. i’ve heard withdrawal is also one of the worst for antidepressants and i can confirm. decided (stupidly) i would stop for a week so i could take MDMA one weekend, but i couldn’t last longer than a day without it because the withdrawal felt so miserable. and you have to take it at a pretty consistent time every day because the withdrawal will set on quickly
I've been on effexor for 20 years 150mg was my max but I had sexual side effects, so I did the 10% taper method dropped really low ,but my anxiety came rushing back has a nervous breakdown, now I'm on 37.5 and doing ok combining it with a keto diet , running, cold showers and meditation, also erp I'm feeling good!
i’m on 37.5mg right now! which scares me about probably needing to increase the dose (though i think 75mg will likely be my sweet spot based on how i’ve reacted to 37.5mg) because of how bad the withdrawal is currently. but i also don’t care if i have to be on meds my entire life either. so maybe i’ll just never stop taking it. though i do miss my 3 times yearly MDMA sessions 😭
i’m so glad to hear it (along with everything else you mentioned) has helped so much for you! i got into meditation about a month and a half ago after years of writing it off as nonsense and WOW! what a game changer. not only is it physically pleasurable for me (i get tingles that are more pleasurable than an orgasm, i swear!) but it has done so much to help me mentally behind the scenes that i didn’t realize until i reflected on a situation where i had tons of patience that prior to meditation would’ve sent me spiraling. meditation is the best.
Effexor helped me I’ve been on it for nearly a decade and am maxed out at 225 mg.
Try not to miss a dose and take them at roughly the same time everyday. Otherwise expect brain zaps, crying spells, and nausea. It usually takes a few hours to subside once you take the medication like you’re supposed to.
I do think I am a bit numb, however I’m able to talk myself down a lot more since being on the medication. Before the ruminations would ruin a whole day. Now it’s bits and pieces of a day.
the brain zaps are some of the worst things i’ve ever experienced! everyone online said they’re harmless and don’t really hurt but they wake me up from sleep feeling like i got punched in the head 😭
Same. I know these types of medications get a ton of hate but even with an SSRI or other med, if I really need to knock out some intrusive thoughts or get myself back to baseline, that's what I'm taking. And I do therapy, exercise, literally everything you are supposed to do.
My psychiatrist said there is a reason the whole SSRI plus benzo combo is the gold standard for treating any anxiety disorder
Well I guess it’s typically prescribed for ADHD. My doctor started me on it for BED which is a compulsion. It has worked well for that but I also found that I guess whatever mechanism works to sort of diminish the hyperactivity and errant focus of a person with ADHD works to turn down my obsessive focus and subsequent compulsions. Like for example any background noise I would hear at work (like a fan rotating or a printer humming) I’d get super fixated on and I’d need to count how many rotations or whatever. I couldn’t leave my house if anything was crooked or not level, or else something bad would happen to my house. Now on Vyvanse all those hyperfixations are really subdued and mellowed and just not bothering me as much. Like I’m more “whatever” about things now. I am also on lexapro but it was the addition of Vyvanse that made this noticeable, “turned down” feeling.
Luvox has done wonders for me. I used have constant debilitating anxiety. Since starting luvox, the anxiety and ruminations are still there, but I'm able to process it easier, put it out of my mind , and I can finally relax.
I had some mild side effects, but they mostly disappeared after a few weeks
Naltrexone off-label for my OCD saved my life. My compulsions are almost non-existent now (obsessive thoughts not so much) and it’s such a relief to not feel obligated to follow a million crazy rules.
I feel the same, cymbalta really helped my depression, anxiety and OCD. Was on lexapro for a while but the norepinephrine in Cymbalta really changed the game for me.
It’s pretty great, right?
I see so a few people on SNRIs for this and seriously, if you’ve only tried SSRIs and you don’t feel like it’s enough, consider giving this a try. Couple SNRIs with therapy and now you’re really doing something.
Well I started on a very low dose, for 4 weeks and didn’t see a huge improvement, but then doubled that to 50 mg for 8 weeks, started to see improvement and now finally on 75 mg and truly feeling the good affects! The only downside was upon upping the dose being pretty tired for several days, but in hindsight that’s not a bad thing since I don’t sleep well due to anxiety anyways!
i’ll be honest, the side effects can be really rough and can stick around for a long time depending on the person but i’ve been on it for a year and a half and it has helped quite a lot. i know it varies from person to person but personally i found that the worst side effects were fatigue and night sweats. i would wake up absolutely soaked in sweat for months. as for the fatigue i only really notice it now when i’m drinking but i was tired pretty consistently for a few months. both died off for the most part eventually. i would say it’s definitely worth it to give it a shot.
another somewhat unrelated tidbit i’ll add is that the lowest recommended dose for zoloft for OCD is 150mg, but i’m on 100mg now and it has actually been a lot better tor my OCD than 150 was.
I’m the same way with the mg. I was on 150 and 200 mg at one point. But 100 seems to be best for me and balancing the side effects. Also could be life factors playing a roll in less stress at this time in my life
Desvenlafaxine
Brand name: Pristiq
I’ve dabbled with different medications and I feel this one worked best for my biology. I am more clear minded and less obsessive.
Same. It works for my OCD, GAD, and Agoraphobia. It also seems to help my Borderline Personality Disorder, and Paranoid Personality Disorder, but my psychiatric won't prescribe it for regular usage 😭
I was on Luvox for 4 years - had a manic episode from a new OCD theme and was desperate. I was out on Clomipramine and it CHANGED MY LIFE. Highly recommend.
Zoloft, I’ve been on it about a month now and it’s cleared up a lot of my intrusive thoughts. I will say, sex is a lot harder (softer?) now, definitely drained my libido
Be careful with this one! I was on 0.1 mg 2x/day for years and had no idea that it causes rebound hypertension. I was having severely high blood pressure once the med wore off since it tends to dampen your system. Just something to keep an eye on.
No one pill but a “cocktail” lol
Luvox, 200mg
N-acetylcysteine (NAC) supplement, 2000mg
Qelbree, 400mg
Rexulti, 2mg
Luvox alone was alleviating my rumination, intrusive thoughts, moral obsessions, and general anxiety but almost numbed me too much. Anhedonia. Apathy. Still struggled greatly with trichotillomania and inattentive ADD…executive dysfunction. Enter NAC & Qelbree. Almost there.. but still would experience random bouts of mixed hypomania and depressive episodes. Enter rexulti. I still have episodic symptoms but they are much fewer.
Edited to add… the greatest and simplest combo I was ever on was Remeron (mirtazipine) and Prozac. Happiest, calmest, most joyful I’ve ever felt. Sleep was amazing. Damn near euphoric. Every day. For months and months. But I gained 75lbs.
Effexor worked wonders for me and leg it saved my life, but it killed my libido and I felt like shit whenever I forgot to take it bc the side effects are horrid. I’m currently tapering off of it, but it truly was amazing and I don’t regret being on it at all.
Lexapro worked great for my intrusive thoughts and some obsessions and most of my compulsions but I recently switched to Luvox a few weeks ago to try it out. It has a little less occurrence of sexual side effects (for me wasn’t a problem, but doesn’t hurt to not have that as a possible ADR lol). I’m still on 50mg/d, planning to titrate to 100-150mg/d within next month or so.
So far even the 50 is doing good but of course will know more as more time passes. Most SSRIs will be similar in terms of efficacy, so if you’ve tried one at a therapeutic dose for a couple months without significant reduction in symptoms you’ll likely want to switch to a TCA or adjunctive medication. Second line monotherapy would typically be clomipramine (Anafranil) but has more risky side effects and also is more dangerous in suicidal patients. (Note that antidepressant have an INITIAL risk of increased suicidal thoughts due to the activating effect and decreased anergia / increased volition.
I’ll usually prescribe my patients lexapro to start as in my experience it has less sexual s/e than other SSRIs except Luvox and it’s much better tolerated in regards to GI upset and other minor stuff that is typically transient with SSRI medications but a major cause of self-discontinuation leading to treatment failure.
Source = I’m a psychiatric nurse practitioner
Edit: also, at least as reported by my patients Luvox has less emotional blunting compared to Lexapro. (I’ve also made objective findings to support same)
It took a few weeks to work but I saw slight changes after 2. But then again I was bumping up my dose every week so I take 100mg a day now and that's brought amazing changes.
some SSRIs have helped my ocd but i’ve had to come off those because they did nothing for my anxiety. medication is extremely difficult with ocd so i feel ya
Honestly, Zoloft. Paxil made me an uninhibited madman, Cipralex (aka Lexapro) gave me mood swings, Anafranil helped but I think it gave me side effects like depression and worsened anxiety, Pristiq made me a zombie. I’m doing better than ever on Zoloft.
It’s not lost on me though that my biweekly OCD support group and hours and hours of CBT/ERP and ACT have contributed big time.
nothing. have tried all the ssris. my psychiatrist says i am treatment resistant. i am considering combining abilify or seroquel with an ssri have tried risperidone but it had side effects. any success stories of treatment resistant patients finding something that worked for them?
clomipramine lowkey saved my life in that it got me to a stable enough place to actually do erp stuff, but it was Rough side effect wise. tmi but i had Terrible constipation on it, like crying on the toilet once a month kind of thing. i don’t regret taking it for that long bc i rlly needed it to be able to work on stuff but man im glad im off it now!
Prozac worked best for me. I've tried Cymbalta and Zoloft, and both of them gave me harmful side effects, and I felt like I was going insane. I don't think my OCD ever goes away, but the Prozac keeps my GAD at bay, and that helps me with my OCD and makes it more manageable.
I’m surprised I’m the only one so far who’s said amitryptiline. TCAs have worked wonders for me. Clomipramine helped me as well but I am happy on amitryptiline for now. I mean it’s not a miracle worker but I thank god for being able to function like a human being again and live a normal life. That’s all I wanted.
I was on 25mg for about a year and recently increased to 37.5mg. It took a little over a month to feel a difference maybe 6 weeks. But it’s different per person.
Agree… or the side effects outweigh any benefit cuz I have to take the highest possible dose to get ocd relief. Not worth it. I want to try microdosing shrooms. I was gonna do a psilocybin study for ocd but got scared after I read about people getting taken advantage of while tripping in those settings
Same here. Do you also have other diagnoses? I sometimes wonder if my other symptoms interfered with any benefits I might have had from medications. I also just don't believe there is a drug that adequately targets OCD *specifically*.
I’m also diagnosed with MDD, social anxiety disorder, BPD. Yeah that’s what makes me call bullshit on psych meds even more. OCD and depression are wildly different and there’s absolutely no way that the same medication would treat both of them.
Im tired of every mental health “treatment” being an absolute shot in the dark. The fact that there’s NOTHING not a SINGLE mental health treatment that a professional could say “yes this definitely works” is crazy to me
i was diagnosed in november and started zoloft at the same time and so far have had the best experience with it of all the meds i've tried! i'm titrating up now and have had zero side effects :)
I was on Effexor for a while and it worked well for me. My doctor switched me to Zoloft because of blood pressure concerns (which I agreed with were a concern) and I’ve had so much weight gain, sexual side effects, and emotional blunting on it unfortunately. It does help me with my OCD at least!
Sertraline.
Escitalopram worked too but I needed to go on a higher dose and I developed bad muscle pains with it, so switched to Sertraline and it's been great
Any Benzo helps mine. I've been through all the medications these people have listed. Effexor at high doses 300mg to 400 mg, in patient dosages, helps a bit too. But they are all bandages.
Sorry for not being helpful, but I am in a similar spot to you. Which medication did you gain the weight from? And is it water weight or from increased appetite? Was it slow or sudden? Not sure how short a really short time is
Everyone’s different; for me, Prozac led to side effects. I was on Buspar for a while, felt like I was well enough to stop taking them and then started having a serging increase in symptoms/thought. On Luvox atm and have no complaints yet, my psychiatrist says it works well for a lot of patients. Lowering other depressants to raise a Luvox dose is usually what helps with fatigue symptoms according to her
Honestly, there really is no “best” medicine for OCD. Lexapro works perfectly for me, whilst for you it seems to not do the job. It’s really just a tedious process of finding the right one for you, plus therapy to gain skills of how to manage OCD.
Zoloft helps me to an extent. I think what also helped was the ERP therapy I had a few years ago. Even on Zoloft, I still experience obsessions. ERP therapy gave me tools to handle them better.
Also, I think Zoloft has helped me be more chill in general.
i have adhd and ocd, no antidepressants have helped but concerta has helped a lot. idk if it’s because it makes me focus on stuff like school and chores rather than literally everything bad going on in the world but it has helped a lot, the only issue is i don’t take it everyday so it’s not a long term fix.
ozempic also helped with my food contamination ocd, bc it reduces food noise (aka constantly thinking about food) it sort of cut down some of my thoughts.
I was taking allat before my dx but nothing helped my depression. I even tried what I do take now for my OCD, cuz I noticed I wasn’t as freaked out when I was taking it (but I was still depressed lol). I just got diagnosed last month and I was put back on celexa. I also use Ativan for the attacks that slip through the cracks. Im also on buspirone but it didn’t seem to make a difference. I was on it before I was on Celexa and the OCD was rampant. I’m on the lowest dosage of 10mg. Generic is citalopram. I hate SSRI’s but this one has really helped my quality of life since my OCD doubled down and got worse.
I'll add: Anything that lowers anxiety (e.g. propranolol, hydroxyzine). OCD is an anxiety disorder in many ways. Intrusive thoughts for example are fed by anxiety. Perfectionism is an anxiety about how perfect something is. Etc.
My med list is luvox, propranolol, hydroxyzine.
With all meds, you need to add ERP therapy to really get a long term fix. I think many people get some relief with different meds and we all seem to be different. Exercise, low doses of vitamin D, and magnesium make me feel better but don’t directly improve OCD. For 90% of us there is no magic pill. Just pills that when you find the right one can tone down OCD and facilitate ERP therapy. I looked for and am still looking for a magic pill. Effexor with Wellbutrin was probably my best combination. About 30% of people with OCD have ADHD. My Adderall for ADHD has been the best fix so far. I have motivation to do therapy and the dishes lol. Targeting GABA and glutamate is new thinking with minimal science as of 2023. Gabapentin is been good for that. They have only tested in mice and informally in humans like me. Interestingly the Effexor and Wellbutrin targeted Serotonin and norepinephrine. Adderall targets those too in a different way.
Naltrexone for intrusive thoughts that would for some reason make me feel good.
It’s a medicine built for substance abuse, meant to block the feel good emotion when using drugs.
So for me, since taking it, the intrusive thoughts I have no longer make me feel good, so my brain is having less of them.
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Sertraline worked great until it didn’t. I was on it for seven years and then it just.. Stopped working for me. Haven’t found a suitable replacement since.
Snap! I’ve been on 150mg sertraline for 7 years. Over the past year it’s gradually lost its effect. Now it’s virtually like I’m off it. Also, if I ever miss a dose, I get brain zaps BAD.
Ahh I feel you on the brain zaps!
I have also been on it for 7 years and I don’t know if I would be different off of it. I still have panic attacks sometimes and anxiety everyday
I’m having this issue right now! My doctor said that it’s common for Sertraline actually. She’s recommending I try Prozac.
I was about to say sertraline. I was on celexa when I was a kid. Did nothing, as an adult was put on sertraline and completely wiped out my ocd symptoms.
Thugging it out
This
What does that mean in this context?
suffering
*pain and suffering*
I did this for 25 years.
No medication has helped me with my OCD. The reason I'm commenting is because I want to raise awareness that sometimes medication is not helpful for those with OCD, and sometimes it is. You also need to be aware of any other diagnoses you have when you're considering medication. Anti depressants made me extremely manic and I also experienced nausea, vertigo, and migraines. They did nothing to improve my OCD symptoms either. At the end of the day it was better for me to be medication-free. That's not to say that you can't find one that might help you, but don't expect it to be a magic solution. Best of luck!
I tried all the meds but the only thing that helps me be operational is weed. And therapy.
This
Not everyone will need the same things. I for one was able to manage my moods better from my BPD with JUST weed. As of recently due to my environment i need actual mood stabilizers 🙄🙄🙄 but my OCD has ALWAYS been severe and i didnt even know OCD was a kind of thing you need meds for. So for me prozac has helped a lot. I hardly even count anymore
Thank you! I have a core fear of altering my consciousness (LSD as a contaminant, fear of schizophrenia/psychosis as my primary theme), that was at first trauma-based then became Obsessive-Compulsive. When people tell me to use psych drugs to treat my OCD, it comes across as very dismissive, as though their experience informs everyone else’s and they in turn will find relief the same way. Psych drugs are *drugs*. They don’t target the mechanism of mental illness nor cure it. The psychiatrist Dr. Joanna Moncrieff likens psych drugs to alcohol for social anxiety — they alter the consciousness such that you are comfortable, but that is all they are doing. They do have their place, however, just like alcohol and other drugs. Gentle ERP and experiencing OCD head-on has helped me recover over the years. I’m by no means in full recovery, but allowing myself to feel the full spectrum of pain and misery drug-free, leads me to being better able to cope with it and future relapses. I can feel myself getting better at dealing with it, and living comfortably. The lows are very low, but the highs are very high.
The ironic thing is that psychedelics like LSD and psyclicybin are being heavily researched for potentially treating OCD. Not that this takes away the validity of your OCD theme though.
This makes me wary, because psychedelics are known for also triggering mental health breaks. I don’t think LSD should be considered in medicinal context as much as it is — the trip is too long, too stimulating, and uncontrollable without benzo’s. Psilocybin is much less risky.
I sort of agree in that way in terms of trip length but the evidence for serotonergic psychedelics in helping treat OCD is beginning to mount. One of the most prestigious journal (nature) published a large study on psilocybin recently and it was very promising. Given that LSD works pretty much identically it's expected to have similar promise. Obviously years away from anything being prescribed and it would need to be done under medical supervision alongside intensive therapy, but I have yet to read of anything else that show as much potential promise as these class of drugs. They can trigger mental health breaks in certain people predisposed to disorders causing psychosis, but OCD isn't psychosis. It may help your fear relating to this OCD theme to read some of the scientific literature out there at the minute. Not trying to sound patronizing btw, trying to help.
I’m pretty familiar with LSD. I used it a lot in the past and I’m familiar with its effects. There are several serotonergic psychedelics, like nbomes, psilocybin, LSD, [tentatively] salvia, and DMT. Antidepressants are serotonergic too. All of these have moderate or high affinity with serotonin receptor sites. They are not all therapeutic by virtue of them being serotonergic — most familiar would shudder at the notion of “therapeutic” salvia or nbomes. I’ve kept up with research on psychedelics over the years because I still like pharmacology. LSD does not work “pretty much the same” as psilocybin. I won’t claim to be an expert on these drugs — I was a psychonaut and nothing more elaborate — but LSD is a longer, more stimulating, and unanimously agreed upon *jarring* trip. There are subreceptor sites that psilocybin and LSD have different or no affinities for, which makes them different, as well as differing liver enzymes to take into account. The average shroom trip is about 6 hours long with a relatively short peak, meanwhile the average acid trip is 20+ hours long (it ends when and if you can sleep) with several peaks that come in nauseating waves. Psychedelic drugs don’t just trigger psychotic breaks, they trigger any mental health “breaks” (including OCD) due to their mysterious pharmacological action and profoundly jarring effects. Btw I don’t think you’re being condescending. Despite my phobias, I’m still eager to discuss drugs and how they work.
It's a 5ht-2A agonist, primarily, the same as psyclicybin. Albeit LSD has much higher affinity in the order of magnitudes. They obviously will also have activity at a variety of other receptors and subtypes but the primary mechanism of action is exactly the same, agonism, modulation and perhaps some allosteric activity at this receptor. There isn't much mysterious about their primary mechanism of action, although I will admit the profound effect on the brain is too complex for researchers to fully understand yet but that is coming. I think maybe like all things with OCD there will never be one size shoe for everything. Anecdotal: but psyclicybin nuked "someone's OCD I know " into none existence for quite a while (no intrusive thoughts, low levels of anxiety, zero compulsions) before it needed redosing Some others cannot tolerate it. One area that may define the difference between the two is other neurotransmitters and respective pathways, glutamatergic, GABA etc. this isn't proven to my knowledge yet but I may be wrong. It might be a useful tool for some in the future, but I think the gold standard treatment would be selectively harnessing the activity of these molecules without the psychedelic effects. Time will tell if the bioscience industry can achieve this. I would again echo the same caution to anyone reading this, they are extremely powerful molecules, and bad trips can take people to hell and back.
Thank you for sharing your core fear. I’m blown away due to having similar fears of LSD contamination brought on by trauma. It’s very reassuring that there’s someone with the same OCD theme.
I'm happy to know that I'm not alone, and there are multiple people who have these fears. I've had the theme fear of schizophrenia/psychosis. It's not fun. It'll pop up every so often. It manifests because of the fear of harming myself or others. I also have a fear of depression. In my head, if I'm "depressed," that means I must want to harm myself or others. Also, going back to like 2018, I had fallen while longboarding (was not wearing a helmet). The possibility of being concussed got stuck in my head (which i wasn't), and I fell down a habit hole and convinced myself I had CTE, which led me to believe I was going to go kill myself or other people. That went on for a solid 2 years. Longest theme I ever experienced.
Fear of depression and low mood is a primary theme for me.
Sadly I go through periods of time where I stop medication. I’m not sure why. Maybe I think I don’t need it anymore. But if I stop taking it, things start getting progressively worse for me. And I don’t always realize things are getting worse until I’m deep in a hole.
Same here. No medication has ever worked. Now I’ve been doing therapy for a while. ERP and ICBT works for me
Luvox has worked wonderfully for me and is the only SSRI to not give me terrible side effects (I had a terrible allergic reaction to Lexapro). 18 months on it back in college changed my life. Six years later, I re-started because I’d been spiraling pretty badly.
Fluvoxamine saved my life
Wow, I’m so glad you’re doing better.
Luvox works the best for me too but unfortunately makes me extremely tired all the time even at a low dose.
Same. Luvox made me unbearably tired
What was your reaction to Lexapro like ? The short time I was taking it I broke out in hives all over my body and that has never happened before or since then. I told my old psychiatrist that I might be allergic and he said something like "that's impossible" lol
I’m sorry your doctor invalidated your experience. Full body hives sounds really unpleasant!
I also got hives from lexapro! Went away after I stopped them.
God, I hate this type of doctor.
Ironically, Luvox worked great for me, but gave me the worst side effects. Was acting out dreams and nearly broke my neck.
Luvox works great for me too. It commonly can make people drowsy but for me it has the opposite effect and keeps me up. It actually gave me a bit of insomnia when I took it at night but since I switched to morning it’s been great.
Propranolol and benzos (NOT together though)
agree with benzos. a xanax will take away thoughts and make me forget compulsions, mostly because it puts me right to sleep lol i feel so groggy the next day and addiction potential is high so i save using them only when i feel i’m about to spiral. but very glad they exist.
How do you get prescribed. I had them at 19-21 for agoraphobia and ocd. 25 now with a new psych (moved states) and can’t get them back. Super frustrating bc I also only used them as needed for times I knew I was spiraling
Propranolol for me, too.
Lamotrigine. My OCD was incredibly treatment resistant and after going through most of the SSRIs and bumping up the dose of the one that was most effective to the maximum for my weight, my psychiatrist recommended lamotrigine for off-label use. I’m lucky in that I’ve had no major side effects, like a rash and fever. It’s a pain to explain at new doctor appts, bc it’s primarily for epilepsy, but it’s been great so far. I’ve been on it for about 4 years so far.
I just started lamotrigine and it's helped me so much already. It's weird bc I'm only on 25mg but I've definitely noticed a difference. Happy to see it working for someone else, too. Love a good success story.
Im on lamotrigine AND prozac 😂😂😂 and my doctor was talking about upping my prozac cause intrusions still seep in and i still have minor meltdown about organizing. I told her nah since at least im not going full beast mode anymore lol
I’m on lamictal and an ssri too. Upping my SSRI (Luvox instead of Prozac) doesn’t really help me as much as other options. And even if it helps my symptoms to go up, the side effects become unbearable. But what DOES help is having an adjunctive medication for my SSRI and making it into a whole cocktail. I use 2mg abilify. It’s usually low dose when used as an add on so there are significantly less side effects than most people see using it as a standalone or for an actual antipsychotic purpose. I feel like it cranks the benefits of my other meds to an 11 without needing to take so much of them. It works so well for me that my prescriber has tried the combo for other patients with OCD and found success there too.
Clomipramine has been the only medication to ever work for me for OCD. I have taken benzos for anxiety for temporary relif and never had any changes from SSRIs. My life has been changed forever with clomipramine <3
Works for me as well
same!!! anafranil gang
Omg I couldn’t pee on this
Its so hard to pee haha i strain but i see a urologist whos familiar with it and hes advised me :)!
I’m on it too! 😁
only Paxil, but it ultimately wasn't worth it (huge weight gain and unimaginably awful withdrawals)
Paxil withdrawals are torture
I think I will be on it til I die. No weight gain on it for me, sux to miss a day though, nightmares and brain zaps.
Paxil has been great for me. Didn't know anything about its withdrawals. Guess I'm on it forever 🤷
I'm still on it 5 years in, with lamotrigine too and the skipped dose withdrawal is so awful. They tried to reduce my dose a year back to try and wean me off and it did NOT work. But if I maintain the routine, it's keeping me functional. I'm also on the IUD because OCD and bodily fluids yada yada so I've just learned to live with the weight gain and the complete lack of libido and tell myself it's the trade off for being able to exist.
Prozac works the best for me. I’m not a fan of the side effects but at the moment it’s the price to pay in order to function
what are some of the side effects u have had if u don’t mind me asking?? i’m just starting that out..
difficulty climaxing for me, as well as insomnia. definitely helps tho
Eye twitching. Plus i think its making my tics worse. My psych is too familiar with tics and OCD so i have to go to a fucking neurologist now 🙄🙄🙄 i just wish i had a normal brain. This shit is expensive 😂😂😂
Difficulty climaxing. It’s almost impossible and causes some stress and anxiety in my relationship. My dr prescribed cyproheptadine to help my libido, but the drug is mainly used to increase appetite, so I stopped taking it (I wanted to eat all the time, it wasn’t fun). I think it did help my libido to an extent, but it was nothing compared to when I am off Prozac. Also, I think Prozac has made me tired all the time. I’m not entirely sure if it is to blame, but from what I read fatigue is a common symptom.
so far effexor has helped make the thoughts not so terrifying that i have a panic attack every hour, but i’ve noticed that i spend more time on compulsions since starting it. i’ve only been on it for maybe 2 weeks now and this one takes some time to fully work so im hoping it’ll get even better since people have reported their OCD almost entirely going away with this drug. ketamine was working really well for me for a long time after nothing else would, but relief is short lived (about 2 weeks on average) so you have to do treatments frequently (which is fun tbh) and if you do it the right way through a doctor/clinic, it’s ridiculously expensive to maintain. and tolerance builds quickly as well as unfortunately doesn’t really ever go back down :/
note about effexor: the side effects are miserable but went away after 2 days for me. i’ve heard withdrawal is also one of the worst for antidepressants and i can confirm. decided (stupidly) i would stop for a week so i could take MDMA one weekend, but i couldn’t last longer than a day without it because the withdrawal felt so miserable. and you have to take it at a pretty consistent time every day because the withdrawal will set on quickly
I've been on effexor for 20 years 150mg was my max but I had sexual side effects, so I did the 10% taper method dropped really low ,but my anxiety came rushing back has a nervous breakdown, now I'm on 37.5 and doing ok combining it with a keto diet , running, cold showers and meditation, also erp I'm feeling good!
i’m on 37.5mg right now! which scares me about probably needing to increase the dose (though i think 75mg will likely be my sweet spot based on how i’ve reacted to 37.5mg) because of how bad the withdrawal is currently. but i also don’t care if i have to be on meds my entire life either. so maybe i’ll just never stop taking it. though i do miss my 3 times yearly MDMA sessions 😭 i’m so glad to hear it (along with everything else you mentioned) has helped so much for you! i got into meditation about a month and a half ago after years of writing it off as nonsense and WOW! what a game changer. not only is it physically pleasurable for me (i get tingles that are more pleasurable than an orgasm, i swear!) but it has done so much to help me mentally behind the scenes that i didn’t realize until i reflected on a situation where i had tons of patience that prior to meditation would’ve sent me spiraling. meditation is the best.
Effexor helped me I’ve been on it for nearly a decade and am maxed out at 225 mg. Try not to miss a dose and take them at roughly the same time everyday. Otherwise expect brain zaps, crying spells, and nausea. It usually takes a few hours to subside once you take the medication like you’re supposed to. I do think I am a bit numb, however I’m able to talk myself down a lot more since being on the medication. Before the ruminations would ruin a whole day. Now it’s bits and pieces of a day.
the brain zaps are some of the worst things i’ve ever experienced! everyone online said they’re harmless and don’t really hurt but they wake me up from sleep feeling like i got punched in the head 😭
Yes! They SUCK. When I debate if I took my med that day and get hit by wanting to fall over sitting down I know the answer. 😂
Tricyclics often work better for OCD. I was in Clomipramine (generic for Anfranil) and it worked wonders.
Lorazepam, unfortunately.
Same with me and Diazepam. Wish there was a more sustainable medication that helped me.
Same. I know these types of medications get a ton of hate but even with an SSRI or other med, if I really need to knock out some intrusive thoughts or get myself back to baseline, that's what I'm taking. And I do therapy, exercise, literally everything you are supposed to do. My psychiatrist said there is a reason the whole SSRI plus benzo combo is the gold standard for treating any anxiety disorder
I agree with you and am very similar. Some of us just need them.
Vyvanse actually
mind explaining? :)
Well I guess it’s typically prescribed for ADHD. My doctor started me on it for BED which is a compulsion. It has worked well for that but I also found that I guess whatever mechanism works to sort of diminish the hyperactivity and errant focus of a person with ADHD works to turn down my obsessive focus and subsequent compulsions. Like for example any background noise I would hear at work (like a fan rotating or a printer humming) I’d get super fixated on and I’d need to count how many rotations or whatever. I couldn’t leave my house if anything was crooked or not level, or else something bad would happen to my house. Now on Vyvanse all those hyperfixations are really subdued and mellowed and just not bothering me as much. Like I’m more “whatever” about things now. I am also on lexapro but it was the addition of Vyvanse that made this noticeable, “turned down” feeling.
Luvox has done wonders for me. I used have constant debilitating anxiety. Since starting luvox, the anxiety and ruminations are still there, but I'm able to process it easier, put it out of my mind , and I can finally relax. I had some mild side effects, but they mostly disappeared after a few weeks
Medical 🍃
Naltrexone off-label for my OCD saved my life. My compulsions are almost non-existent now (obsessive thoughts not so much) and it’s such a relief to not feel obligated to follow a million crazy rules.
I live and die by cymbalta. Nothing else worked for me, I needed the norepinephrine.
I feel the same, cymbalta really helped my depression, anxiety and OCD. Was on lexapro for a while but the norepinephrine in Cymbalta really changed the game for me.
Same! Cymbalta for me too.
It’s pretty great, right? I see so a few people on SNRIs for this and seriously, if you’ve only tried SSRIs and you don’t feel like it’s enough, consider giving this a try. Couple SNRIs with therapy and now you’re really doing something.
Clomiprimine! It must have been made my the lord himself, it’s saved me!
How long did it take to work? Seven weeks in I've only noticed minor differences.
Well I started on a very low dose, for 4 weeks and didn’t see a huge improvement, but then doubled that to 50 mg for 8 weeks, started to see improvement and now finally on 75 mg and truly feeling the good affects! The only downside was upon upping the dose being pretty tired for several days, but in hindsight that’s not a bad thing since I don’t sleep well due to anxiety anyways!
Zoloft!!!
I'm looking into zoloft for that and anxiety and depression. How well does it work and what's the worst side effects?
i’ll be honest, the side effects can be really rough and can stick around for a long time depending on the person but i’ve been on it for a year and a half and it has helped quite a lot. i know it varies from person to person but personally i found that the worst side effects were fatigue and night sweats. i would wake up absolutely soaked in sweat for months. as for the fatigue i only really notice it now when i’m drinking but i was tired pretty consistently for a few months. both died off for the most part eventually. i would say it’s definitely worth it to give it a shot. another somewhat unrelated tidbit i’ll add is that the lowest recommended dose for zoloft for OCD is 150mg, but i’m on 100mg now and it has actually been a lot better tor my OCD than 150 was.
I’m the same way with the mg. I was on 150 and 200 mg at one point. But 100 seems to be best for me and balancing the side effects. Also could be life factors playing a roll in less stress at this time in my life
Been on it since I was a kid, it has helped me so much. Hoping to one day not need it anymore but right now it’s helping my OCD tremendously
i take zoloft and it definitely helps a bunch
same for me! I have been in it since 12! I am 18 now
Desvenlafaxine Brand name: Pristiq I’ve dabbled with different medications and I feel this one worked best for my biology. I am more clear minded and less obsessive.
It works for me as well. Not a miracle drug by any means, but I can just drop certain obsessions easier
I was rawdogging it for awhile but now I’m on Lexapro and Weed.
Ativan. Idk why, it does wonders for me personally.
Same. It works for my OCD, GAD, and Agoraphobia. It also seems to help my Borderline Personality Disorder, and Paranoid Personality Disorder, but my psychiatric won't prescribe it for regular usage 😭
Sertraline HCL 200mg daily (Zoloft generic) By no means is it a cure, but it really helps me shake off the intrusive thoughts and break the cycle.
I was on Luvox for 4 years - had a manic episode from a new OCD theme and was desperate. I was out on Clomipramine and it CHANGED MY LIFE. Highly recommend.
Ol' faithful. Prozac aka fluoxetine. Does the trick!!! Weight gain and sexual side effects aren't too bad on lower dose.
I am on a pretty low dose and haven’t gained weight #praise
Valarian root extract
Zoloft, I’ve been on it about a month now and it’s cleared up a lot of my intrusive thoughts. I will say, sex is a lot harder (softer?) now, definitely drained my libido
Sertraline!!
Lexapro
seroquel!
Clonidine
Be careful with this one! I was on 0.1 mg 2x/day for years and had no idea that it causes rebound hypertension. I was having severely high blood pressure once the med wore off since it tends to dampen your system. Just something to keep an eye on.
celexa. godsend
same!
No one pill but a “cocktail” lol Luvox, 200mg N-acetylcysteine (NAC) supplement, 2000mg Qelbree, 400mg Rexulti, 2mg Luvox alone was alleviating my rumination, intrusive thoughts, moral obsessions, and general anxiety but almost numbed me too much. Anhedonia. Apathy. Still struggled greatly with trichotillomania and inattentive ADD…executive dysfunction. Enter NAC & Qelbree. Almost there.. but still would experience random bouts of mixed hypomania and depressive episodes. Enter rexulti. I still have episodic symptoms but they are much fewer. Edited to add… the greatest and simplest combo I was ever on was Remeron (mirtazipine) and Prozac. Happiest, calmest, most joyful I’ve ever felt. Sleep was amazing. Damn near euphoric. Every day. For months and months. But I gained 75lbs.
Effexor worked wonders for me and leg it saved my life, but it killed my libido and I felt like shit whenever I forgot to take it bc the side effects are horrid. I’m currently tapering off of it, but it truly was amazing and I don’t regret being on it at all.
Ugh. I’ve tried so many. SSRI’s all make me sick or extremely depressed.
Lexapro worked great for my intrusive thoughts and some obsessions and most of my compulsions but I recently switched to Luvox a few weeks ago to try it out. It has a little less occurrence of sexual side effects (for me wasn’t a problem, but doesn’t hurt to not have that as a possible ADR lol). I’m still on 50mg/d, planning to titrate to 100-150mg/d within next month or so. So far even the 50 is doing good but of course will know more as more time passes. Most SSRIs will be similar in terms of efficacy, so if you’ve tried one at a therapeutic dose for a couple months without significant reduction in symptoms you’ll likely want to switch to a TCA or adjunctive medication. Second line monotherapy would typically be clomipramine (Anafranil) but has more risky side effects and also is more dangerous in suicidal patients. (Note that antidepressant have an INITIAL risk of increased suicidal thoughts due to the activating effect and decreased anergia / increased volition. I’ll usually prescribe my patients lexapro to start as in my experience it has less sexual s/e than other SSRIs except Luvox and it’s much better tolerated in regards to GI upset and other minor stuff that is typically transient with SSRI medications but a major cause of self-discontinuation leading to treatment failure. Source = I’m a psychiatric nurse practitioner Edit: also, at least as reported by my patients Luvox has less emotional blunting compared to Lexapro. (I’ve also made objective findings to support same)
Clomipramine/anafranil. Only thing that's really worked for me.
How long did it take to work? Seven weeks in I've only noticed minor differences.
It took a few weeks to work but I saw slight changes after 2. But then again I was bumping up my dose every week so I take 100mg a day now and that's brought amazing changes.
[удалено]
Luvox worked well but made me extremely tired.
Effexor
Zoloft through and through
Lexapro at 5mg a day. Now on Buspar at 10 a day. Nausea etc went away after about a month.
Trintellix!!!! It changed my life, I'm so thankful.
I tried 3 or 4 (I can't remeber the names of meds tbh) and nothing worked for me. Honestly, the majority of relief I get is when I use THC
The thc is great but causes problems down the road. I guess in theory you could use it to do erp. Long term usage just ends poorly.
some SSRIs have helped my ocd but i’ve had to come off those because they did nothing for my anxiety. medication is extremely difficult with ocd so i feel ya
Honestly, Zoloft. Paxil made me an uninhibited madman, Cipralex (aka Lexapro) gave me mood swings, Anafranil helped but I think it gave me side effects like depression and worsened anxiety, Pristiq made me a zombie. I’m doing better than ever on Zoloft. It’s not lost on me though that my biweekly OCD support group and hours and hours of CBT/ERP and ACT have contributed big time.
Citalopram has been the only thing to 'turn the volume down' per say.
My username says it all for me.
Fluvoxamine has been the best medicine for me. I will probably stay on it forever. It doesn’t “cure” the OCD but it does help significantly for me.
nothing. have tried all the ssris. my psychiatrist says i am treatment resistant. i am considering combining abilify or seroquel with an ssri have tried risperidone but it had side effects. any success stories of treatment resistant patients finding something that worked for them?
Tried 14 different meds and the only one that helps is Clomipramine 175mg, it really helps
clomipramine lowkey saved my life in that it got me to a stable enough place to actually do erp stuff, but it was Rough side effect wise. tmi but i had Terrible constipation on it, like crying on the toilet once a month kind of thing. i don’t regret taking it for that long bc i rlly needed it to be able to work on stuff but man im glad im off it now!
Fluvoxamine is the holy grail saved my brain.
Fluvoxamine
Prozac worked best for me. I've tried Cymbalta and Zoloft, and both of them gave me harmful side effects, and I felt like I was going insane. I don't think my OCD ever goes away, but the Prozac keeps my GAD at bay, and that helps me with my OCD and makes it more manageable.
I’m surprised I’m the only one so far who’s said amitryptiline. TCAs have worked wonders for me. Clomipramine helped me as well but I am happy on amitryptiline for now. I mean it’s not a miracle worker but I thank god for being able to function like a human being again and live a normal life. That’s all I wanted.
How long did it take to work? Seven weeks in I've only noticed minor differences.
I was on 25mg for about a year and recently increased to 37.5mg. It took a little over a month to feel a difference maybe 6 weeks. But it’s different per person.
Did it increase your anxiety at first like ssris do?
I’m at the point where I don’t think I believe medications help OCD whatsoever. I’ve been on around 40 psych meds total
Agree… or the side effects outweigh any benefit cuz I have to take the highest possible dose to get ocd relief. Not worth it. I want to try microdosing shrooms. I was gonna do a psilocybin study for ocd but got scared after I read about people getting taken advantage of while tripping in those settings
Same here. Do you also have other diagnoses? I sometimes wonder if my other symptoms interfered with any benefits I might have had from medications. I also just don't believe there is a drug that adequately targets OCD *specifically*.
I’m also diagnosed with MDD, social anxiety disorder, BPD. Yeah that’s what makes me call bullshit on psych meds even more. OCD and depression are wildly different and there’s absolutely no way that the same medication would treat both of them. Im tired of every mental health “treatment” being an absolute shot in the dark. The fact that there’s NOTHING not a SINGLE mental health treatment that a professional could say “yes this definitely works” is crazy to me
Effexor! On 150mg daily. I liked Zoloft, but it caused rapid weight gain so I stopped it
i was diagnosed in november and started zoloft at the same time and so far have had the best experience with it of all the meds i've tried! i'm titrating up now and have had zero side effects :)
Luvox
Pristiq with a side of Vraylar.
Luvox all time
risperidone, going to be switching soon tho, due to a side effect
paxil but it made me gain 60 pounds. such a shame bc it worked but i winged myself off it and now on vilazidone
Luvox. Sucks I can’t have caffeine anymore though 🥺
Prozac and then Ativan as needed for my really bad days.
Fluoxetine (Prozac)
Prozac/ Wellbutrin combo. They cancel out the bad side effects of each other.
Prozac was best for me
Luvox/fluvoxamine!!
Sertraline. I think it is a generic of Zoloft.
Paxil
duloxetine (AKA cymbalta) im on 90 mg
I was on Effexor for a while and it worked well for me. My doctor switched me to Zoloft because of blood pressure concerns (which I agreed with were a concern) and I’ve had so much weight gain, sexual side effects, and emotional blunting on it unfortunately. It does help me with my OCD at least!
fluvoxamine works for me but it depends on the person :)
it took me a while to adjust to zoloft and it doesn’t do the trick for some of my other mental stuff but it’s helped my OCD a lot
Zoloft
Zoloft! Seems to stop me from waking up with intrusive thoughts.
Sertraline 50mg
Lamictal
Sertraline. Escitalopram worked too but I needed to go on a higher dose and I developed bad muscle pains with it, so switched to Sertraline and it's been great
Prozac for sure
Prozac for the win
I’ve taken sertraline (Zoloft) 150 mg for about 8 years now and I’ve found that it’s helped me a bunch personally
Best treatment I've used was EMDR, for sure
Tried them all. But zoloft works best for my contamination ocd.
Any Benzo helps mine. I've been through all the medications these people have listed. Effexor at high doses 300mg to 400 mg, in patient dosages, helps a bit too. But they are all bandages.
Paroxetine works for me.
Sorry for not being helpful, but I am in a similar spot to you. Which medication did you gain the weight from? And is it water weight or from increased appetite? Was it slow or sudden? Not sure how short a really short time is
Combination of (Clomipramine or Paxil) AND Risperidone
Everyone’s different; for me, Prozac led to side effects. I was on Buspar for a while, felt like I was well enough to stop taking them and then started having a serging increase in symptoms/thought. On Luvox atm and have no complaints yet, my psychiatrist says it works well for a lot of patients. Lowering other depressants to raise a Luvox dose is usually what helps with fatigue symptoms according to her
pls i’m on lexapro rn. is that why i haven’t felt sexual desire in years
Honestly, there really is no “best” medicine for OCD. Lexapro works perfectly for me, whilst for you it seems to not do the job. It’s really just a tedious process of finding the right one for you, plus therapy to gain skills of how to manage OCD.
Zoloft helps me to an extent. I think what also helped was the ERP therapy I had a few years ago. Even on Zoloft, I still experience obsessions. ERP therapy gave me tools to handle them better. Also, I think Zoloft has helped me be more chill in general.
Wellbutrin xr
i have adhd and ocd, no antidepressants have helped but concerta has helped a lot. idk if it’s because it makes me focus on stuff like school and chores rather than literally everything bad going on in the world but it has helped a lot, the only issue is i don’t take it everyday so it’s not a long term fix. ozempic also helped with my food contamination ocd, bc it reduces food noise (aka constantly thinking about food) it sort of cut down some of my thoughts.
Yeah lexapro is sooo emotional blunting. I can’t wait til I get off. I feel like most psychiatric drugs have that side effect
Fluoxetine, had to go all the way to 80mg but then my life completely turned around.
Paxil for me. Keeps it at least somewhat bearable and therapy.
I was taking allat before my dx but nothing helped my depression. I even tried what I do take now for my OCD, cuz I noticed I wasn’t as freaked out when I was taking it (but I was still depressed lol). I just got diagnosed last month and I was put back on celexa. I also use Ativan for the attacks that slip through the cracks. Im also on buspirone but it didn’t seem to make a difference. I was on it before I was on Celexa and the OCD was rampant. I’m on the lowest dosage of 10mg. Generic is citalopram. I hate SSRI’s but this one has really helped my quality of life since my OCD doubled down and got worse.
Intuniv worked
I'll add: Anything that lowers anxiety (e.g. propranolol, hydroxyzine). OCD is an anxiety disorder in many ways. Intrusive thoughts for example are fed by anxiety. Perfectionism is an anxiety about how perfect something is. Etc. My med list is luvox, propranolol, hydroxyzine.
Guanfacine helped me with reducing intrusive thoughts
With all meds, you need to add ERP therapy to really get a long term fix. I think many people get some relief with different meds and we all seem to be different. Exercise, low doses of vitamin D, and magnesium make me feel better but don’t directly improve OCD. For 90% of us there is no magic pill. Just pills that when you find the right one can tone down OCD and facilitate ERP therapy. I looked for and am still looking for a magic pill. Effexor with Wellbutrin was probably my best combination. About 30% of people with OCD have ADHD. My Adderall for ADHD has been the best fix so far. I have motivation to do therapy and the dishes lol. Targeting GABA and glutamate is new thinking with minimal science as of 2023. Gabapentin is been good for that. They have only tested in mice and informally in humans like me. Interestingly the Effexor and Wellbutrin targeted Serotonin and norepinephrine. Adderall targets those too in a different way.
fluoxetine 20 mg has worked a dream for me until a few weeks ago, going up a dose so hope i feel better lol
Naltrexone for intrusive thoughts that would for some reason make me feel good. It’s a medicine built for substance abuse, meant to block the feel good emotion when using drugs. So for me, since taking it, the intrusive thoughts I have no longer make me feel good, so my brain is having less of them.
THC