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[Lucky Stone]

Lots of ladies on here post about anxiety and the pros and cons of ADs/SSRIs so I thought it might be interesting and useful to post about my experience so far. I have always suffered from anxiety/stress, call it what you will but the meno has exacerbated this - to put it mildly. I've tried just about everything including HRT which helped but didn't take it all away but I was managing when in May, my doc did a Q&A session with me and diagnosed generalised anxiety disorder. She persuaded me to give the new type ADs a try - sertraline - and asked if I would be prepared to see a psychologist. I am still waiting for an appointment with the latter but in the meantime have been taking the tablets for about 2 months now.

She warned me that I might feel sick at the start - even on the recommended half tablet dose - but I didn't and although I felt a bit 'spaced out' for a day when increasing to a whole tablet, this wore off. Since then, on the whole I have to say I do feel better overall although I still do have 'anxious days' these are much more manageable and rather than actively having to fight the feelings, they come but then go again pretty quickly. I'm also finding that my mind is quieter than it has been - I suffer a lot from repetitive thoughts (usually unhelpful and negative) and although I do get these, on and off, they are not as strong as they were before I started taking the meds. My OH says that I have changed and am much more like my old self and indeed, I do seem to have more patience and am not so restless as I was.

I am looking forward to meeting the psychologist as I am starting to wonder about certain aspects of my behaviour which I have always thought of as 'normal' - my obsessions with things for example - but in the meantime, the tablets are helping. I never wanted to go down this route and like a lot of folk, was scared of the implications of ADs (and the idea of coming off them in due course) but I decided to trust my doc and have been glad I did.

Hopefully this post will be useful to ladies out there who recognise some of themselves in the above. 

[CLKD]

   I fought tooth and n ail against having ADs but they have given me a life again.  Add to those the beta-blockas and DH and I can go out and about most days again.

Do you have obsessions?  I hand wash when stressed.  I also get stuck into something completely, a new hobby, gardening, when I did volunteer work: nothing else mattered, it is like there is no room in my brain for anything other than that particular obsession 

[Lucky Stone]

Yep CLKD, that's me and I've been like that ever since I was a little kid. Growing up, all I ever thought about was Dr Who and I never ever missed an episode, and that's before video or DVDs were around. I've wasted a lot of brain space over the years  I genuinely think I may have OCD but am waiting to see what this psychologist has to say. I just get an idea/problem/obsession lodged in my brain and it goes round and round and round .... Some days are worse than others. Have to say I am not like it about housework though (although I did use to comb the fringe on my rug after hoovering and I do line glasses up in the cupboard).

[CLKD]

Can you laugh about it?

I have habits.  Some I don't think about others I find myself wondering    .......... I talk to myself in my head all the while and try to 'put the World to rights' ........... but when I get a bee in my bonnet 

[Lucky Stone]

Yes, I talk to myself as well - sometimes out loud. I think that runs in the family as my gran used to do it. I'm just me and happy to accept the way I am - warts and all! We are what we are 

[CLKD]

Yep.  I talk out loud sometimes and it's always when DH will hear me - during 'normal' conversation between us he constantly says 'ugh?' to every comment  but he hears every word when I'm muttering 

Also when stressed my brain rushes through scenarios at a rate so fast I can't explain anything to anyone ......... 

[Dyan]

Hi ya Luckystone
I haven't been on for a while as OH has been on holiday and we have been out and about enjoying the weather.
Just logged on and saw this so thought I would share my experiences with you.

I am a OCD sufferer,diagnosed in 2004 at the age of 43.
I've had it all my life but NHS Gps never picked it up and I was always being treated for depression.
I went private and had a diagnosis within a day and went on a medication programme- Prozac- starting at 20mg and increasing to 80mg which is the dose I require to control the OCD.
I have been on this now since 2004 and I also had a year of private CBT.

My OCD is repetitive thoughts.
I get a thought then the anxiety comes and I want to seek reassurance. Usually from my OH.
Before treatment my OH would keep giving me this reassurance so feeding the OCD which was the wrong thing to do but,bless him,didn't know this at the time.He thought he was helping me but in fact I would get worse and the reassurance would be repetitive and my anxiety levels rocketed through the roof and then the depression set in.

Now I am in control of my OCD with the help of Prozac and the CBT I had.

What I was told by my psychiatrist at The Priory,where I stayed for 5 weeks was that I was never on the correct dosage of SSRI's . The GPS never prescribed more than 30mg which got me out of the depression but the OCD would still be there.
Now with the 80mg the OCD is very well controlled.

I still have obsessions but the medication and the CBT I had helps me to manage it.
I don't get the crippling anxiety and depression I had before.

[CLKD]

<wave Dyan> missed you 

 

[Dyan]

<wave> CLKD

Aw bless you!

I think it's good to share ones experiences.
Listen to me,putting on my posh talk when I'm a gud ol' noorfock gal.

[honeybun]

It's great you got the help you needed and obviously a greater understanding of your OCD.

It's such a shame that again GPs are not clued up enough to refer on.


Honeyb
X

[Taz2]

Thanks so much for sharing Dyan

Taz x 

[CLKD]

I was in Norfolk this week, went to Pensthorpe  - their gardens gave me ideas above my s tation 

If I don't take medication at night usually because I am too tired or not in the 'right' place, I feel woozy the next day 

[Lucky Stone]

Thank you for sharing that Dyan - very interesting. I am still waiting for my appointment - rather disappointingly the doc's phoned up last week to ask why I hadn't been and it appears the letter was sent out but I didn't get it and hence missed the appointment (I never chased as you always have to wait with the NHS) - so now I am waiting for another one.  I really do want to get the ball rolling on this. I have had CBT but only a couple of sessions, after that I was just given some handouts and referred to a website.

No-one has ever mentioned the possibility of OCD to me, but I do wonder whether my GP has now had the thought after I talked to her last time about my obsessive thoughts which just won't go away. The SSRIs have helped a bit but over the last week or so, I've been struggling with them again. I am calmer generally, less anxious, which is good and this applies to my brain as well but in the background it's still nagging away. So I have a hunch that this might be me as well, although I am trying to go in with an open mind and just try and answer questions honestly. In a way it would be a relief to get a diagnosis as at least it would reassure me that it's just the way my brain is and not something mad and weird that I am imagining.  I suppose that lots of folk - me included in the past - imagine OCD is just about cleanliness and counting, which I can't say I suffer from but obsessions - yes! So we'll see. And I will be chasing that appointment if i don't hear within a week or so.

[CLKD]

My brain 'puts the World to rights' : particularly if someone has or might upset me, my brain has silent conversations as to what I would say but probably what I am unlikely in reality, to put into words 

[Dyan]

Luckystone- hope you get something sorted soon.
Having had experience with the NHS with my OCD I wish you all the luck in the world.
I really feel for people who are waiting and waiting for appointments etc knowing how frustrating it can be.