Unmedicated? please read.

Perhaps you're trying holistic medicine. You think that drugs will change you, or harm you, or that they're not good for you and you just want to try something natural. I must warn you, I spent 4 years trying that because my family wanted to avoid drugs and go the 'natural' way. We tried everything. That holistic stuff doesn't work. It honestly doesn't work at all. I'm sorry.

But medication does. It actually works. SSRIs in particular. I'm on the max dose of Prozac. It works better for OCD than it does for depression, ironically enough, but it saved my life. I have been on Prozac for almost two years now, and before it, life was a living hell. Pure-O, very severe. Every day I woke up and cried because I hoped I had died in my sleep. HOCD, POCD, Harm OCD, you name it. I had it at one point. It's important to stress that Prozac is not in any way necessarily better than any other SSRIs, and some work better than others for some people.

If you choose to get medication, here's my advice. It will take a month and a half to start working *at all*. You might feel a slight improvement, but you won't get very much benefit until after a month and a half, generally. Don't delude yourself into thinking you'll be the exception.

And, lastly, you will probably need a high dose to get full benefit. A low dose of an SSRI doesn't do very much for OCD, but a high dose certainly can. The side effects, depending on your medication, may be quite unpleasant, especially when you are first starting, but I urge you to push through them. It's so, so worth it.

When your OCD gets better, don't stop the medication. If you do stop, then when you restart the medication, it may not work again and you'll need a new SSRI and a new one and a half months to wait for the new medication.

This is the hope I have to offer you. It saved me, it might save you too.

I'll play counterpoint and mention some of us really don't want to be on meds. But I have heard they can be good for OCD that can't be contained any other way.

I'm able to keep my OCD fairly contained without them. Although I've considered SSRIs for depression and general anxiety.

Snaga wrote:I'll play counterpoint and mention some of us really don't want to be on meds. But I have heard they can be good for OCD that can't be contained any other way.

I'm able to keep my OCD fairly contained without them. Although I've considered SSRIs for depression and general anxiety.

I didn't either, but for people with crippling Pure-O like me, I think it's the best and perhaps the only viable option. You can't condition yourself well when you have OCD that incredibly severe, so medication tends to be the best (only?) option. It's important to recognize that while there can be a price for medication, the price for not using it can be much greater. I truly believe I'd kill myself within a week without my medication. It'd be like giving a baby an ice cream and then taking it away after he's tasted it. It's worse now that he's known what it can be like.

I'm really glad that the meds are working well for you!

I can't take SSRIS because I have bipolar and they trigger mania for me. My psychiatrist has suggested a dose of riperidone. I'm not thrilled about the side effects, but I'm seriously considering it if exposure therapy doesn't work.

bendib wrote:When your OCD gets better, don't stop the medication. If you do stop, then when you restart the medication, it may not work again and you'll need a new SSRI and a new one and a half months to wait for the new medication.

sometimes meds can do wonders indeed...but i don't like the idea of taking medication for the rest of my life.

Torrent wrote:

bendib wrote:When your OCD gets better, don't stop the medication. If you do stop, then when you restart the medication, it may not work again and you'll need a new SSRI and a new one and a half months to wait for the new medication.

sometimes meds can do wonders indeed...but i don't like the idea of taking medication for the rest of my life.

Neither do I. But it looks like the only option. It works, it's here, and it made my life worth living again.

I'm bumping this for the public good. :^)

Been nearly symptom-free since around November 2014 as a result of my medication. I hate seeing so many others suffering horrifically from Pure-O, thinking that medication is "bad for you" and "unnatural" etc.
I regret listening to my anti-medication family on that issue more than I do any other personal decision in my life.

Welp, here's a necropost.

I considered writing this again as a new topic but realized that would be pretty stupid.

Considering what I've been through and what so many of you have been through, I figured I should bump it again in the hopes it can save someone.

Please go read the first post.

Glad that's working for you. I have pure o as well. For me it was a triple whammy of rapid cycling bipolar 1, ADHD and cPTSD.

I tried everything I could to not have to take meds and still kept trying when I was trying to figure out which meds to go on without side effects and such. When it came to my dx there was no way I could control that mania coupled with psychosis apart from chaining myself to a radiator. Even then it'd be bad because I don't own a radiator so who knows where I'd be.

The bipolar or anxiety attacks from the cPTSD would trigger manic lows which would follow with me having rapid ADHD thoughts causing me to go spiraling into an OCD rabbit hole. My bipolar meds help with lows and a bit of compulsiveness. My ADHD meds take the rest of the compulsions away as well as the nonstop rapid thoughts.

Diet and exercise weren't enough to control my huge highs + devastating lows + extremely traumatic memories. I tip my hat to anyone who can find peace without meds. I know some can and I'm not saying they absolutely should be on meds. In my case though it wasn't possible. It would have consumed my time experimenting to figure out what things my brain needed more or less. Even that's a delicate balance considering there were often enough times I would hit psychosis.

One minute I could be normal with the next I'd be up late searching the internet to distract myself from rituals so as to not feel like people who don't exist were plotting against me.

One diet thing that DOES help is cut back on stimulants like caffeine and sugar. They can make you feel good temporarily but they can also cause extreme anxiety and paranoia. I suggest if consuming either do it before noon.

Mine's been gone since getting my meds stabilized.

Holodeck wrote: One diet thing that DOES help is cut back on stimulants like caffeine and sugar. They can make you feel good temporarily but they can also cause extreme anxiety and paranoia. I suggest if consuming either do it before noon.

Mine's been gone since getting my meds stabilized.

By sugar, do you mean sugar like in candy and lemonade etc or also the natural sugars in fruits?