Posted by Snoozy on May 6, 2003, at 13:21:04
In reply to OCD COMPULSION AND ANAFRANIL: DOES IT HELP YOU?, posted by mills on May 6, 2003, at 11:25:33
Hi Mills -
is this the kind of thing you mean: lying awake at night and going over and over a stupid comment you made 10 years ago, just a passing comment? Or thinking "geez, why did I say that or do that?" over the kind of thing most people would have forgotten about at the time, and you can't really stop thinking about it even though part of your mind knows you shouldn't be worrying about this?
I think of obsessive-compulsivness as a continuum, it's not that you don't have it if you don't have a ritual (though that's just my personal belief). Obviously, you are bothered by this, whatever it might be called.
I haven't found a medication that specifically helps with the obsessive rumination, but it just seems to get better when the mood and everything else gets better.
> I used to take Paxil for OCD-like symptoms (I can't get anybody to tell me what I REALLY have, but be that as it may), characterized by compulsive angst-ridden introspection, with not so much the "intrusive thoughts" on the one hand or the "compulsive ritualistic behavior" on the other, but something sort of in the middle, i.e. a strong, demanding, sort of tortured impulse and urge to look over and over at my feelings. I'm interested if anyone has OCD with this symptom pattern rather than the classic "hand-washing" or "lock checking" etc. I can't find anyone (but me) whose primary compulsion is to check feelings who has been diagnosed as OCD. I'm tired of being alone in this and want to know of others who experience this. All the literature is about the classic "intrusive thoughts" obsessiveness or the "ritualistic behavior" compulsions (it's always been strange to me that this is the distinction, because "compulsion" to me speaks of a feeling, impulse or urge, but I've seen so little literature on it).
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> Paxil worked well, making the urge subside, in fact saved my life, but I HATED the sexual side effects! (You know what they are!). I switched to Lexapro, but it didn't help enough, and so now my pdoc has me on Anafranil. So far so good, but the jury is still out. What do you think? Also, did anyone have a "weird" head while getting on this stuff? Almost dementia-like disorientation. Anyway, it scared me for awhile. Please let me know your experience with this medication and the "compulsive" aspect, the feeling part, the urge itself, of OCD. Thanks.
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poster:Snoozy
thread:224665
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20030505/msgs/224683.html