Posted by Trish Baker on September 29, 2001, at 19:22:09
In reply to Re: Cam or anyone, Anafranil better for OCD?, posted by bones on September 29, 2001, at 7:49:34
> Hi Trish: I'm glad that the Anafranil is working for you. I know weight gain is difficult to deal with; but think of the alternative! Amazing enough - weight gain wasn't a side effect with me when on Anafranil. But typically what I would do would be to go on a high dose and come down to a much lower dose after symptoms had subsided. Perhaps not a good thing to do, but it seemed to work for me.
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> I was reading through the other messages from Mich and Scott. (Thanks guys!) Anafranil has always worked well for me in the past, and I did try other SSRI's - but at very small doseages. I found my tolerance of SSRI's even less than the tricyclic's - perhaps because I was expecting no side effects. Whenever I even upped to 20 mg. of Prozac, I felt like I was hit over the head with a plank! Anafranil does wipe you out at the beginning - but the side effects cease - even that wonderful dry mouth.
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> I'm still off of medication - waiting until next week when I revist my Doctor. I know all of the alternatives - have been on most of them. I suppose I'm somewhat "non-compliant" as I go on and come off - go on and come off.
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> On Wednesday night I took a Tyleonol 3 plus a regular tylenol. Codeine really does have an amazing effect on this illness - I've felt great for the last couple of days. Sleeping well - feeling "normal". (That's a good feeling!!) Not in a habit of doing this - who wants to become addicted to narcotics.
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> Anyway - I'm babbling (on "babble") again!!
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> Glad you're feeling better. Do you go to any behaviour therapy group?? When my symptoms reared their ugly head again, I immediately phoned the closest "center" in the city (Toronto). I registerd with it about a year and a half ago. Massive amounts of questions/inteviewing. (Specimen "A".) They advised (as they did last time), that there would be a waiting time of 6 months. Ususally in 6 months I'm feeling better and am kind of reluctant to resurrect symptoms again. I suppose I should.
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> My faith is a bit of a troublesome area with my OCD. (Actually right now I suppose, I'm a little bit mad at God.) It helps and hinders my progress. Nothing to do with God in his/her goodness - more to do with deep rooted superstitions/fears that my OCD exacerbates. The Doctor I visited suggested I get counselling at my church; probably a good idea. Focus on God's love - meditate and bathe in it.
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> Take care Trish. Tell me a little about yourself. You mention experiencing symptoms at a young age. Was your childhood - stable - relatively happy. Mine was.Hi, thanks for posting. It's always comforting to know we're not alone. My symptoms are better but not good enough. Possibly I need to go higher on my dosage and deal with the weight gain and then taper off some. What dosage do you go up to in order to feel good and how long do you stay on it?
My childhood was not as bad as some others but there was some various types of abuse there. My symptoms started when I was 5 with cleanliness. My parents probably thought it was great! But I would go years without a bad bout of OCD and wham, a major stressor would set it off like my parents divorce, moving away from home after college, marriage, baby, etc. I self medicated many years with alcohol and I guess you could say that was my obsession for many years. Now I'm trying to stay sober but it gets difficult when my symptoms get bad. But, on the flip side, having an active 21 month old doesn't give you too much time to obsess about negative things. I really believe that someone's negative experiences in childhood can certainly exacerbate OCD symptoms but I strongly believe it is heredity or some other form of brain chemical imbalance. I don't know of any behavior therapy groups around here for OCD but I would certainly like to find one. I live in a pretty small town. It sounds like it has helped you in the past quite a bit. I hope you are able to get into the group soon so that when you do start your meds, it will help until they kick in. Well, time for some alone time for 'MOM'. I hope to hear from you guys again. Trish
poster:Trish Baker
thread:47742
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20010927/msgs/79916.html