Dealing With OCD?

[CHEF]

So anyone here have OCD?

I hate how normal people who are clean throw the term OCD around like it's no big deal. I have it, I refuse to be a person who has to do rituals and shit like that just to function. I find myself wanting to do things exactly the same way every time. Like at night I take my day pillows off my bed and put them down in a certain place. If I put them in a random place my OCD kicks in and I get anxiety. I also have to put my OTC drugs with the labels sticking facing out.

Anyone ever see a psychiatrist for there OCD? Just curios what they say. I know that you can treat OCD with anti- depression drugs but I don't want to be addicted to a drug that doesn't get me high. They also scare me with the side effect.

[nick]

So anyone here have OCD?

I hate how normal people who are clean throw the term OCD around like it's no big deal. I have it, I refuse to be a person who has to do rituals and shit like that just to function. I find myself wanting to do things exactly the same way every time. Like at night I take my day pillows off my bed and put them down in a certain place. If I put them in a random place my OCD kicks in and I get anxiety. I also have to put my OTC drugs with the labels sticking facing out.

Anyone ever see a psychiatrist for there OCD? Just curios what they say. I know that you can treat OCD with anti- depression drugs but I don't want to be addicted to a drug that doesn't get me high. They also scare me with the side effect.

There are plenty of non pharmaceutical treatments for OCD. Most of them are based around behavioural therapy(BT) or cognitive behavioural therapy(CBT). There's also ERP which is exposure and ritual prevention that works by acclimatising you the anxiety OCD causes.

So,there are opotions out there.   

[Sand and Water]

So anyone here have OCD?

I hate how normal people who are clean throw the term OCD around like it's no big deal. I have it, I refuse to be a person who has to do rituals and shit like that just to function. I find myself wanting to do things exactly the same way every time. Like at night I take my day pillows off my bed and put them down in a certain place. If I put them in a random place my OCD kicks in and I get anxiety. I also have to put my OTC drugs with the labels sticking facing out.

Anyone ever see a psychiatrist for there OCD? Just curios what they say. I know that you can treat OCD with anti- depression drugs but I don't want to be addicted to a drug that doesn't get me high. They also scare me with the side effect.

There are plenty of non pharmaceutical treatments for OCD. Most of them are based around behavioural therapy(BT) or cognitive behavioural therapy(CBT). There's also ERP which is exposure and ritual prevention that works by acclimatising you the anxiety OCD causes.

So,there are opotions out there.   

^^^ this is really true. It also depends on the degree of "OCD" For example, I know someone who thought they had OCD, but his symptoms did not fit the criteria. He suffered a terrible tragedy (wife died suddenly)  What it was, was his anxiety causing him to feel out of control, so he had great difficulty w/any unexpected change(s) to his routine. Unexpected change represented "danger" to him.

He began to develop specific routines (like your pillows etc). Once he realized he was trying to mentally protect himself against the unknown, counseling helped him recognize it and relax a lot.

True OCD involves strong compulsions (often w/ritual behavior), that significanctly interfere with daily life. A LOT of us have small degrees of "OCD"-like behavior. If someone can't get out the door to work on time or at all,  because the pillows (just an example) arent how theyre "supposed to be", THAT'S a red flag.

 Unless your habits get in the way of daily life/social interactions to that sort of degree etc, I wouldn't worry. If you wanting to have everything done "just so", that may be a ritual in and of itself. It could be you need to feel in control, or honestly, it could just be a case of "sometimes a cigar is just a cigar).   If the former, maybe think about talking with a counselor?

[CHEF]

I'm really thankful  for the responses. I'm trying to use this time I have to better myself. Since you guys take the time to help me I really try to help anyone on this site, like taking the time to write that meal plan out.

As far as your friend sand that sounds like me, I don't have the compulsive thoughts so maybe I don't have ocd? the little pillow thing sounds silly until you can't sleep until the pillows get put in the right spot.

Nick, I'm turning 37 in Oct and I'm going to spend my 37th yr on this earth trying to better myself. Maybe a phsych dr visit could help. Once again thnx.

[Mr.Apothecary]

Hey there...

I've never seen a psychologist / psychiatrist over my OCD issues, but I definitely had mild to moderate OCD as a kid.  Although I never displayed the classic hand washing or hygiene-crazy rituals, I certainly had my own compulsions.  Below are the symptoms I can recall:

-Having to wear socks to bed
-Requiring a special type of sock
-Needing to wear shoes that were 2+ sizes too large
-Tapping my feet and shaking my head for certain reasons
-Shoelaces had to be perfect with no bends anywhere, and the part of the laces that get tied had to be the same length on both sides.
-Feeling the need to enter a room with a certain foot (and not always the same foot).

(no, I never developed a foot fetish, haha.  Not sure why so much of this revolved around my feet!)

-Some things had to be a certain way (like your pillows)
-Money in my wallet had to be in order by denomination (largest bills in back), all bills must be straight and not crumpled or folded in any way.

I can't think of much else at the moment.  Most of these issues took place in elementary school and middle school.  I just remember sitting in my bedroom asking myself if I wanted to continue to life like that and I decided that I didn't... and I slowly phased things out (maybe one by one) and saw that nothing bad was happening when I discontinued the behaviors.

Well, I hope this can help you or someone else... I am available if you need to talk.

[Sand and Water]

Hey Chef--hmmm ya wanna thank me? Well, Nark & Flutterby gave me some cool tips for my legendarily horrible pie crust dilemma... How's  about a couple of easy stick-to your ribs recipes??  I'm just kidding lol.

One of the great things about being here with y'all is most everyone is happy to lend an ear and/or give solid advice (like Mr Apothecary above me 😊). This generosity of spirit (tons of examples, but I dobt want to forget anyone or I'd mention them) just blows my mind.

If the pillow thing (or other stuff starts to really bother you, you've already said you might want to talk to somebody, so that's great. All the best, s&w

[nick]

I'm really thankful  for the responses. I'm trying to use this time I have to better myself. Since you guys take the time to help me I really try to help anyone on this site, like taking the time to write that meal plan out.

As far as your friend sand that sounds like me, I don't have the compulsive thoughts so maybe I don't have ocd? the little pillow thing sounds silly until you can't sleep until the pillows get put in the right spot.

Nick, I'm turning 37 in Oct and I'm going to spend my 37th yr on this earth trying to better myself. Maybe a phsych dr visit could help. Once again thnx.

OCD is nothing to be ashamed of-it's usually a defence mechanism to a stressful or traumatic event(although there's some evidence that some illnesses can trigger OCD) or events. It's an attempt to take control again by controlling your environment. It might help to try and work out if you can find and address the root cause.

[candy]

I had terrible OCD as a kid. My parents took me to some therapist, but I wasn't ready to deal with it at that time. I not only had the compulsive thoughts, but the rituals as well.
I still do suffer from anxiety and I get very nervous about having a clean body and environment, but nothing like I went through in my teens and 20's.
I must of been the cleanest junkie I knew. Probably why I spent most of my time using alone.

My youngest son has been dealing with it for a few years now. He is getting better with treatment. He does CBT and exposure therapy.
It has really helped him and he is off all medications to treat his OCD. He was gaining a lot of weight on the antidepressants and hated the way they made him feel.  He has the intrusive thoughts and the rituals as I did, but much more motivated than I ever was to get help.
It was really bad at one point. If we are out in public and someone bumpes into him, he has to touch them back in a certain way. My son has gotten very good at hiding it.  I don't think anyone ever realized they were even being touched. It was just a slight touch on the arm or back, but if he didn't do it, he would really start to get very anxious. If anything, I think people just thought someone brushed up against them. 

We go through a lot of soap and my washing machine runs all day.  Our water, gas, and electric bill's are very high, but what can I do.  It is really tough to watch your kid go through it, or anyone you love for that matter. Of course our family is all aware of my son's OCD and we are used to his rituals, but it can be tough in social situations.

You just cannot tell someone with OCD to stop. The anxiety can be so debilitating and the rituals can be embarrassing.
If you or someone you know has OCD, getting as much information as you can is important.

[Chip]

as someone who doesn't have OCD, my obsession with drugs at times seems almost pathological.

my question is do OCD drug users become even more obsessed with drug rituals or are they totally unrelated behaviours ?

do people with OCD even use drugs ?

I have these mental images of an OCD tweaker and it's messy.

[ms-copin]

I too have OCD but really didn't like the medications they were trying to put me on and am now trying the therapy to see if it helps. I can relate to the bedsocks lol i still do this along with the hand washing and im sure if i were to move on to injecting i wouldn't have to worry about any abscesses. 

@ Chipper

I used amphetamine paste / ritalin for a while when i was preparing for a big exam coming up in uni and it made my ODC pretty bad, i couldn't imagine a tweaker with OCD being able to function every time they get high.

[Chip]

<snip>

@ Chipper

I used amphetamine paste / ritalin for a while when i was preparing for a big exam coming up in uni and it made my ODC pretty bad, i couldn't imagine a tweaker with OCD being able to function every time they get high.

yeah, as i suspected. stay away BUT low therapeutic doses (=<10 mg.) may just give you a physical energy lift and would no doubt brighten your mood. Exceed that at your own risk.

i fully support your argument.

I had terrible OCD as a kid.

I must of been the cleanest junkie I knew. Probably why I spent most of my time using alone.

<snip>

i found one Candy, that made me chuckle to myself ... 

[chemicalchart]

I used to go through some ritualistic behavior as a kid, but nothing I think could be called OCD. Like I would chant the word "hacienda" under my breath when watching high school basketball games, convinced that the word would help our team win.  Also shoelaces had to be replaced every month or whenever the ends got frayed, whichever came first. But nothing that would stop me in my tracks and prevent me from going on with my day.  The funny little rituals faded away by the time I was 13 or so.  I had a house mate who I think had a slight form of OCD. He'd go into a sulk if I cleaned the livingroom and put the pillows back on the couch at the wrong ends or left the remote anywhere but at its designated spot on the coffee table. He run around the place until everything was back in its proper place.  Leaving toothpaste out on the bathroom sink was a big deal, I think. His bedroom was pristine, the few times I saw it. No one was allowed in there...ever.  Still it never reached the point of touching things just so or tapping one foot 8 times before climbing a flight of stairs. Nothing like that or at least nothing I ever noticed.  He was handy when IVing though. Everything was always clean, needle boiled 7 min. before the next person used it. Alcohol swabs at point of injection, hands and fingers scrubbed pink. Still we were sharing needles but that didn't enter our minds that it was risky, regardless of how long you boiled the needle... the inside of the syringe and binkie barely got a rinse. I think it was the idea that the needle had touched another person but his thinking never got to the point that blood had gone up inside the rig.

[Sand and Water]

<snip>

@ Chipper

I used amphetamine paste / ritalin for a while when i was preparing for a big exam coming up in uni and it made my ODC pretty bad, i couldn't imagine a tweaker with OCD being able to function every time they get high.

yeah, as i suspected. stay away BUT low therapeutic doses (=<10 mg.) may just give you a physical energy lift and would no doubt brighten your mood. Exceed that at your own risk.

i fully support your argument.

I had terrible OCD as a kid.

I must of been the cleanest junkie I knew. Probably why I spent most of my time using alone.

<snip>

i found one Candy, that made me chuckle to myself ... 

^^^ This is what's so interesting to me about OCD. The symptoms range from mildly annoying to absolutely debilitating.  Also, most people I know usually think of the TV show "Monk" when OCD is mentioned-- obsession with order and cleanliness. Candy mentioned compulsions and rituals. Like she said with her son, not necessarily both are present in equal measure.

OCD can have any degree or combo of these. I had a roommate I had when I was 19. She really did have OCD, but it took me telling her parents that she'd have to leave if she didnt get help for whatever was wrong with her. I didn't realize she had OCD, because I thought OCD=cleaning freaks. I'd come home to a trashed house; clothes everywhere, socks tossed in the hallway, shirts all over the bathroom etc. It was like living with Oscar from the Odd Couple!

I thought she was just a scatterbrained slob--turned out she had strong compulsions about clothes.  Her father was a bigwig in our county, but he finally got her to a psychiatrist who tried her on Paxil.  The difference was night and day!  She hid it for so long then finally told me & we were able to work it out. I knew *something* was really wrong, but didn't understand the intrusive thoughts thing until she explained it me.

 I have a ton of empathy for anyone whose life is interrupted by this & I hope no one is ashamed to ask for help. From what I've seen, it can be exhausting and isolating.

[Narkotikon]

as someone who doesn't have OCD, my obsession with drugs at times seems almost pathological.

my question is do OCD drug users become even more obsessed with drug rituals or are they totally unrelated behaviours ?

do people with OCD even use drugs ?

I have these mental images of an OCD tweaker and it's messy.

I have OCD, and I'd like to answer this.  Yes, people with OCD use drugs.  I use drugs.  Some drugs even help people with OCD, and I'm not only meaning antidepressants.  I've found opiates to be very useful for OCD.  Research has been done on this, and opiates have been shown to improve OCD symptoms in some people.  Of course they're also addictive, so further research is hard to initiate.  And good luck on allowing opiates to be used for OCD, even as an off-label use.  Their use for OCD isn't likely to happen anytime soon. 

I've also found benzos to be helpful, especially when you're extremely anxious.  OCD is an anxiety disorder.  When someone is really anxious about their obsessions or compulsions, benzos can help them calm down quickly.  I've never found them to prevent recurrent obsessive thoughts or compulsive actions like opiates though.  Opiates almost make OCD go away (for a time), whereas benzos are just useful for the anxiety associated with OCD. 

Stimulants tend to make my OCD worse.  Some more than others.  Both cocaine and amphetamines / meth exacerbate my OCD, but amph / meth do it more than coke. 

I'd also like to say there are different kinds of obsessions.  For instance, take a person whose obsessions are about cleanliness, and their compulsions are to wash their hands repeatedly.  They're obsessed with cleanliness, with washing their hands, etc.  That doesn't mean they're obsessive about everything.  Obsessions and compulsions tend to be somewhat focused.  A person with OCD isn't obsessive about everything under the sun. 

I wish more people realized that.  I've been told a few times "oh, he's just being obsessive" when I wasn't.  It wasn't related to my OCD obsessions or compulsions at all.  Just because a person is obsessive about certain things, it doesn't mean that OCD tendency translates into every other aspect of their life. 

I think those misunderstandings and generalizations about OCD, and about mental health issues in general, are very demeaning and denigrating.  Mental health issues as a whole are still very stigmatized and misunderstood by the general public.  People use mental health issues against people.  It's no wonder people feel ashamed for coming forward or seeking help. 

As for addiction and OCD, I don't view them as being the same at all.  OCD is rooted in fear.  People do ritualistic behaviors b/c they fear a negative consequence.  The rituals, in their mind, temporarily prevent those perceived consequences from happening.  For instance, people whose obsession is contamination and therefore wash their hands compulsively are afraid of getting sick.  That's why they've got OCD.

I suppose you could say addiction is rooted in fear.  People use b/c they're afraid of getting sick.  But I think the difference is that, with addiction, the fear is real.  People know if they don't use, they will get sick.  With OCD, the fear is perceived to be real.  Logically people with OCD usually know if they don't do X, Y, Z that they won't suffer negative consequences.  They do them out of fear that it could possibly happen.  The fear is perceived as a risk.  OCD people don't "know" that they're going to suffer negative consequences if they don't do the rituals.  They fear the risk of it happening.  The "what if."  They do the rituals to be on the safe side. 

It's even more compounded if the OCD person actually suffers their perceived fear if they don't do the rituals.  For instance, if they don't wash their hands, then actually get sick, they'll start to believe it will happen every single time they don't wash their hands.  But it's actually just coincidence.  They don't actually "know" that will happen.  It's simply perceived.  That's why ERP (Exposure Response Prevention) therapy is so effective.  The person with OCD gradually confronts their perceived fears, then comes to realize they won't suffer negative consequences, despite them fearing that they could. 

Drug addiction can seem obsessive, but it's not like OCD.  People do drugs because they make them feel good and / or help them escape.  They get dependent and become addicted.  They redose in a compulsive way b/c they want to feel good again and to prevent w/d.  Drug rituals tend to happen b/c people associate those behaviors with getting high.  I think, in their mind, they think "if I do it this way, like last time, I'll get that good high again."  Or similar reasons.  Those tendencies develop b/c of the drugs and the person's addiction / dependency on them.  Not because they're truly obsessive or compulsive.

It kinds of irks me when people compare drug addiction to OCD.  They're really not similar at all.  Also, this post isn't directed at anyone in particular.  Chipper's post sparked the response, but it's not directed at him.  It's just a general post on the topics at hand. 

I've got more to say.  Both about OCD in general and my personal struggles with it.  Depending how this conversation goes, I'll consider posting them.  In all honesty I'm wary of giving out too much personal info b/c I don't want it held against me later. 

[Chip]

<snip>

OCD is rooted in fear.  People do ritualistic behaviors b/c they fear a negative consequence.  The rituals, in their mind, temporarily prevent those perceived consequences from happening.  For instance, people whose obsession is contamination and therefore wash their hands compulsively are afraid of getting sick.  That's why they've got OCD.

<snip>

i think you nailed this one - i understand OCD so much better. i didn't know the root cause before you pointed it out. Great post !