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Mental health

OCD and a new daily ritual to manage

Started 18 October 2024 · 24 replies · 261 hearts · read 2.9k times

AikoOsaka, JP · 18 October 2024
1.8 years ago

OCD and a new daily ritual to manage Writing it down partly to work out what I actually think.

Not asking anyone to fix this. Mostly saying it out loud somewhere it will be read kindly.

Here is where I am. The medication side has been more or less as described, and the part nobody prepared me for is everything around it: what to say to people, how to plan a week, and how to tell the difference between a thing to endure and a thing to raise.

I have written down what has actually happened, in order, because I find that more useful than my summary of it.

Anyway. Thank you for reading this far. Any experience gratefully received, and I promise to come back and say what happened.

87

NazneenDhaka, BD
#1

Different experience here, for balance. Mine did not improve and in the end I stopped, and that was the right call for me. Both outcomes exist.

14

KaiVancouver, CA
#2

The phrase that unlocked my appointment was asking what specifically she wanted me to watch for. It moved us from reassurance to a plan in about thirty seconds.

9

JonahFacilitatorCork, Ireland
#3

I want to slow this down a little. There are four different answers flying about and they are all somebody's real experience, which makes them true and not necessarily relevant to the person who asked.

24

AbramAmsterdam, NL
#4

Reading the opening post, I recognised more of that than I expected to.

I keep a two-line diary and it is the only reason I could answer this question about myself. Worth starting even now.

11me too 9

SaoirseKilkenny, IE
#5

Can I gently push back on one thing? Not the substance, just the framing — you have written twice that you should be coping better. Who told you that?

14me too 8

IzzyWatford, UK
#6

Reading the reply above, I recognised more of that than I expected to.

My pharmacist was more use than anyone. Ten minutes at the counter, no appointment, no charge.

9

BronteHaworth, UK
#7

the reply above — yes, and the bit that took me longest to accept was the next part.

I am about four months behind you and I have been dreading exactly this, so thank you for writing it down before I got there.

5

TaaviTallinn, EE
#8

Yes to the burping. It is real, it is unbeautiful, and it does settle.

12

CormacWaterford, IE
#9

It got worse before it got better for me, which I wish someone had said. About ten days of worse.

6

LeniLeipzig, DE
#10

Reading the reply above, I recognised more of that than I expected to.

For what it is worth, the trial data on this is thinner than the confidence of the internet would suggest. Worth knowing when you read the posts.

9me too 3

OssianTromsø, NO
#11

Have you got anyone who can be with you when you do it? It made an enormous difference to me and I felt silly asking.

13

BramwellNottingham, UK
#12

the reply above said something I want to sit with for a second.

The thing that changed it for me was going slower, agreed with my prescriber. I am not suggesting you do that. I am saying the conversation exists.

11me too 2

MairéadMayo, IE
#13

I did exactly the same and felt terrible about it. You have not done anything wrong.

11

IlyaAlmaty, KZ
#14

No advice, just recognition. That sounds exhausting and I am sorry you are in it.

9

MargueriteQuebec City, CA
#15

Practical, boring answer: write the three questions down before you go in. I have never once remembered them otherwise.

7me too 6

TamzinPoole, UK
#16

Coming back to this a fortnight later to say it settled. Leaving the update because I hate reading threads that stop.

12

LeifTrondheim, NO
#17

What the reply above described happened to me too, in a slightly different order.

I am the person who had the frightening version of this. I went in, it was investigated, and it was not what anyone feared. Going in is the whole of my advice.

8

PippaTruro, UK
#18

My experience was very boring, which I offer as data. Some of us just get a dull time of it.

12

TallisEly, UK
#19

Building on what the reply above wrote rather than answering the original question.

What helped was lowering my own expectations of the week rather than trying to hold the week together.

10

OdessaLviv, UA
#20

Please do not read the comments under news articles about this. I lost a fortnight to that.

15

BryherIsles of Scilly, UK
#21

Two things that helped me, neither of them clever: small amounts more often, and drinking a lot more than felt necessary.

8

BessLouth, UK
#22

I would take that to a clinician rather than to us, and I would do it this week. Not because it is definitely serious — because it is the sort of thing that is much easier to rule out than to worry about.

10me too 2

JonahFacilitatorCork, Ireland
#23

Gently: you have apologised three times in a post where you have done nothing that requires an apology.

13

MintaColchester, UK
#24

What the reply above described happened to me too, in a slightly different order.

Mine lasted about seven weeks and then lifted over a few days. I cannot tell you why. I can tell you it lifted.

9