62 replies to this topic

[adam_93rio]

I don't think you could've put it better AVV IT,
I wouldn't agree with completely ignoring cannabis as an option. It's a really hazy area full of biased opinions rather than fact, not a lot is proven but because there is 'evidence' for both arguments, people will believe whichever they want to. (in no way am I saying you're wrong, so please don't take this the wrong way)
In my opinion it shouldn't be left out, because although it has supposed side effects and negatives, it has also been proven to help ease the stress and anxiety caused by OCD, it helps to numb the thoughts that you can't control. And although it can cause anxiety in people without such disorder, it can have the opposite effect when you are challenged with the anxiety every day

[brad-the-bear]

have you tried hypnotism or acupuncture?

brad.

[rally515]

Hi everyone,

Thought I'd start another topic on this since my last one a few years ago because I'm at a different phase of my life now and have actually seeked help and gone through therapy for it.

I am just looking for any advice on the best way to get prescribed meds for Anxiety based OCD. When you say 'OCD' I think a lot of people think that OCD means having to line up things on your table because you want them neat, or having a ridiculously clean car, which I think everybody shows traits of in some aspect of their life. Unfortunately some people like myself have a form of OCD which is extremely debilitating and effects almost every aspect of their lives. Not having done something to me feels like life and death to the people closest to me. I could list off a thousand examples of this but I dont think that's necessary. It's just like a devil inside your head that you can't explain, you have your normal side and then a side which is completely out of any control of your own, no matter how reassured you are, no matter how irrational the thought is, it still wins. Constantly counting, doubting, and generally making you feel like a terrible person for thinking the things you do, even if they're not your own thoughts.

I find the thing which scares me most is how utterly fixated and dependent I feel towards certain people. With my mind so fixed on protecting one person, I'm constantly imagining the scenario of them not being there anymore, constantly feeling that pain and despair genuinely convincing myself that the person is hurt or more common than not, dead. I have touched on Dependent Personality disorder with my therapist, and whilst we never got as far as diagnosing because I stopped the sessions, she seemed quite sure I had many traits of DPD too. It scares me that I feel unable to live my life without a certain person there to, constantly thinking of a life without the person I care about most, and knowing that so many people care for me, I mean the world to a lot of people, but knowing that this one person feels like the be all and end all is an utterly terrifying thing since life is such an uncertainty, and we all know that tomorrow could bring anything, it makes it hard to move on in my life as a person, to find work or education when I feel like the most important thing is this person being there, this one person being alive, being there to talk to... on this same planet, is enough of a reason, I have done enough and I need nothing more from life.

The main point of this topic was to try and find the best way to get prescribed medication for OCD, namely Prozac. I have gone through a course of Therapy which I felt was helping at first, but I guess it was just having somebody to explain my exact feelings to for a couple of weeks took away some of my guilt and put me at ease for a while. Eventually that grew old and I found myself attending the therapy sessions getting nothing from it, and knowing that my therapist could be spending that hour with somebody who was actually benefiting from it. They seemed hugely biased towards therapy, and medication was rarely mentioned, but from my experience of OCD, of which I have a good understand since suffering for so long, some people react great to treatment, and some dont. Some people spend 2 years having therapy and find it helps a little, and then start a course of medication and find 80% of their symptoms are gone within 2/3 months. I am currently in the middle of a break with my therapist after explaining to her how I feel, but really I just want to start medication, which she doesn't seem too keen on. Whilst I understand the complications, I still feel that it should be down to me to decide this, surely? if my case is bad enough, which from what I have seen, it definitely is, I should be able to say for myself that it's what I want to try. Whenever it's suggested to my therapist she almost instantly strays away and mentions something else.

Is there a way to do this through my GP? I assume they'd have to get evidence of my OCD which they could do through the therapist.

Also I'd like to hear any stories from other OCD sufferers, I know there are a few on the forum. Share what you like.

Thanks,
Craig ^^

And to make this worthwhile for those uninterested

Sorry to be a bit off topic here, but what colour is this black i.e. paint code

Sorry again,

Regards

[Mini-Mad-Craig]

i think i want to die quite a lot :/

[JustSteve]

i think i want to die quite a lot :/

Same ahah! I think Ive actually been feeling everythimg youve described and recently looked into a way of helping me. Cant talk now because I need to get to work, so i'll be back later if I get time. Is it okay if I ppossibly pm you?

[the.stroker]

Just a quick note from TMF STAFF.

Craig there is both good and bad advice in this thread.
At the end of the day this is a car forum,and whilst people may be honest and genuine in their approach to help you none of us ( to my knowlege ) are trained proffesionals.
The best advice we can give is for you to contact your G.P in the first instance and seek guidance on the best way forward to help you and point you in the right direction.
Im sure your friends both at home and within TMF will continue to offer you support in whatever way they can.

[Tanya]

There is hope Craig, even if life looks very black now.

I've just read AVV IT's post and I couldn't have put it better.

In my case, my family members with significant mental health problems didn't get the treatment that they needed until they were referred to specialists - their difficulties were too much for the GP to manage alone. Both have had talking therapies which partially helped one (even the partial help really helped) and the talking therapies had no affect on the other. Both were referred to Psychiatrists where they were both prescribed medication which has literally been a life saver for the one where the talking therapies didn't work and has been a partial success for the other one.

AVV IT is right - GPs are the prescribers and do it under the guidance of the specialist. In my experience, it usually takes the specialist a couple of days to write to the GP advising what to prescribe but I always ask the Psychiatrist when the GP with receive the letter, so I know when to collect the script. GPs do vary so find one you can work with.

As for cannabis, please don't. The brain is incredibly complex and valuable and with still little known about it. However, your best bet is specialist advice not self medication when you do not have the specialist knowledge to do the medicating.

As I'm sure you know, with complex mental health problems there are no quick fixes. However, it is definitely worth keeping going as you will get there in the end.

Edited by Tanya, 29 November 2012 - 02:12 PM.

[Mini-Mad-Craig]

Thanks for the replies everybody, I wish I could find some kind of way to justify them, but really, I can't. I've read and taken on board each and every one though. You've all been so helpful, another reminder of why I stay around this neck of the woods. I'm a feeling a bit better now, but I understand your concern since it's a public forum touching on quite sensitive matter Dan, I'll tread carefully and just hope the thread can stay open for a while longer.

OCD tends to come with other things and I go in and out of waves and episodes where it gets me much further down and depressed than it would at another point. I'll just try and stay positive and remember that I always have great friends here.

Edited by Mini-Mad-Craig, 29 November 2012 - 02:26 PM.

[MaxAndPaddy]

Its hard for anyone who doesnt suffer to realise just how debilitating things like this can be, me included.

I'm sorry that I cant offer any kind of advise other than to keep talking and then talk some more..... especially to the people closest to you

We'l never forget that it was you and Simon that made the effort to come to the Redbull Karting and support Ben, it was a shame we didnt have more time but it said alot about what kind of a person you are

A good one

[minimaxie]

Craig, having just read this thread mate I can only offer you my deepest sympathy to a debilitating and what is clearly an agonising lifestyle as Dog would put it. I agree with him, it isn't an illness, it's a lifestyle that you feel you have no control over. I don't suffer from this but have seen friends who do and friends who have got through the barrier and became better people from it. I can't begin to imagine what you and Adam suffer through mate, but all I know is you are a very brave young person to be so open about it, helping others on here who are suffering the same.

There isn't going to be a "quick fix" solution to it, mental instability is something that has no time limit. But methods and changes in your lifestyle can and will help. Others have mentioned the use of marijuana on here as an aid, I have to say I wouldn't recommend it. As Tanya has said, your brain is a complex system that is constantly changing and developing, you never know how you could react to putting Cannabis in your system. It could be bad, it could be good. I'm not pro or against cannabis, each to own if they want to use it. I just believe there are better and more effective ways of controlling your state. Having been a Police officer and arrested teens on cannabis and witnessed the effects it has on them, I wouldn't be personally be telling you to take it. But cannabis is neither here nor there, I have my views on it, as others are allowed to aswell. Back to the point.

I truly believe you will pull through this one day Craig, as I've said, I've seen friends who have managed to control their anxiety. They're much better people for it and gone on to lead perfectly normal lives. The road ahead isn't going to be easy but you seem like a strong willed person and that's something that will help you greatly when you feel at your worse. Speak to your GP and make them get you to see a specialist, again, as said if your GP won't, find another who will. Try to channel this pent up energy into something you are good at. A hobbie for instance. There's got to be something that you know you excel at mate, it's something that could help you take your mind off things when it gets tough. As you know, you have many friends on here who are willing to talk to you and help out, me being one pal. If you ever need to talk it's only a PM away mate, the same goes to you Adam! I know I don't offer any real advice but sometimes talking to someone familiar can always help.

Honestly Craig I wish you the bestest of luck with whatever route you choose, I only hope you find peace with yourself one day dude have a chat anytime you want!

Big manhug

All the best
Max

[the.stroker]

" but I understand your concern since it's a public forum touching on quite sensitive matter Dan, I'll tread carefully and just hope the thread can stay open for a while longer. "

Mate we just want you to have the correct advice , advice from a trained expert who knows the right approach in the road to helping you.
In addition there is no intention of locking anything at this stage,we just want you to get the right advise.
chin up!!

[minimarco]

Please let me blather on about myself for a bit...

I have trouble feeling emotions and have only recently started to learn the origin of why. I do not remember anything from my childhood before my father passed away (around 7). I realized my mind subconsciously suppressed those memories and have been protecting me from harm by not letting me put any value on emotions, not letting me feel empathy for people, not feeling love, not giving a crap about anything more than its logical worth.

i think i want to die quite a lot :/

Funny enough (maybe not funny enough), I've been trying to do that myself. On several occasions I've tried to get to that point on purpose through the use of drugs (LSD, magic mushrooms. Not cannabis, cannabis is what helps bring me back to a sane level after the trip) just to see what it is like. I wanted to experience and feel what I couldn't normally. Love, hate. I went to a place of pure anxiety where I felt trapped psychologically. I was going in and out of the washroom and looking myself in the mirror trying to see what I have become. I saw myself naked from the social politics and stigma and realized that I really truly love the people around me and that I'm hurting them by not letting myself go. I sat there while literally everyone in my life flashed before my eyes and the good times I've had with them. I felt fortunate in my misery.

The lesson I learned through all that is something quite obvious, the Beatles were right, all you need is love. I think you are special and can feel and think in a way "normal" people cannot. You should love yourself for that. I don't know that much about you and if you are there yet but I believe you will find value in yourself in the future, find meaning in this burden in an otherwise meaningless life. Like a cage looking for a bird. I think that is what we are all ultimately looking for. Some people have no idea even where to start before it all comes to an abrupt end. You are lucky. You have a head start and you have Simon with you on this journey.

[RawlinsGTR]

One day Marco, Craig and I will come to Vancouver to bumble about in a mini with you.

[minimarco]

That's a deal.

p.s. I think it is inevitable for an anglophile like me to come to England. We'll see.

Edited by minimarco, 29 November 2012 - 06:32 PM.

[Mini-Mad-Craig]

I'm going to the doctors on Thursday about something and I'm thinking of bringing this up too. I think I do want to try some kind of medication and a lot of people close to me urge me to at least try it too. Even when my OCD isn't that bad, I still have very bad anxiety surrounding my feelings towards the most important aspects of my life and it just leaves me feeling really very lonely and secluded, aside from having all the great people around me I could ever need. When I'm with Simon not a thing matters, not a thing in the world, but the seperation anxiety leads me feeling quite tense and nervous on the day that I'll go home from his, or he'll go home from mine which then causes a spike in my general anxiety levels which then leads my brain to create compulsions which means that OCD has a reason to attack again. I think the way my brain functions leaves me feeling an almost false sense of lonelyness, seperating myself from everything, society, just leaving me feeling as though I'll someday be left behind and It won't matter.

Seems quite a big decision to start medication but I think that I realised lately that even when my OCD isnt too bad, I'm still developing a lot of bad thoughts, emotions and feelings which leave me generally feeling quite down, and anxious, and I'd like to just be rid of some of the anxiety and compulsive thoughts aside from the OCD.

I need to be able to live a life for myself and I feel that being as dependant on somebody as I am right now, although it doesn't effect us as 'people' it will effect the direction that we go in the future a lot and will only make things harder. When things are moving on in a way I felt like I wanted, it starts to happen and again all I feel is negativity that it isn't right, like I caused the wrong thing to happen and that it'll eventually change into something which will end in me being alone again.

I think most of all I feel as though it's all quite pathetic. I think therapy didn't help me because I'm rational enough to see through it, and see what it truly meant, what the methods truly did. Basically an elongated way of telling you that you can't really change anything. I can see that to somebody that has never suffered mental health it'd be easy to just think 'Get on with it' but it's really quite hard to do that. I want to have a happy medium and not care, and not be dependant on certain factors being consistent in my life but I just dont seem capable of that. I want to just get on with life enjoying every second, but it's pretty damn difficult. I feel a bit like a personality stuck behind a wall that is my own mind... it doesn't feel right at all

Edited by Mini-Mad-Craig, 24 January 2013 - 11:57 PM.