OCD. I've suffered and struggled with it since I was 13-14 years old, for over 45 years now. Do you or someone close to you suffer from this? Luckily, I've been taking a medication, Fluvoxamine, trade name Luvox, for almost 8 years now and it has helped quite a bit. With NO discernible side effects. It's also one of very few medications that is used ONLY to treat those with severe OCD. So please feel free to share your thoughts or experiences. If you don't want to post this for everyone to see, that's quite understandable. If this is so, please feel free to start a personal conversation with me. Thank you.
what are the OCD symptoms?
They are many and varied. The most common symptom is believing that you've somehow contacted deadly germs and HAVE to wash your hands vigorously to rid yourself of these germs. This thought will repeat over and over in your mind, causing you to think of things like, "Did I really wash my hands enough?" Or something like, "Damn, I THINK I just touched something unclean, and I JUST washed my hands." Which can lead to one washing their hands over and over until the OCD thoughts die down. I've literally washed my hands FIVE or SIX times before I felt that I had done this correctly. The Luvox I take helps tremendously with things like this, and I very rarely wash my hands more than once now. I've done some research on the causes of OCD, and most cases are due to a physical malfunction in one's brain. People who DON'T have OCD have synapses in their brains that smoothly connect to other synapses, with no repetitive thoughts. While most WITH OCD have synapses that fail to connect with the next synapses, causing a "rebound" effect, where the thought is repeated over and over until the connection is complete. Drugs like Luvox help connect these synapses and prevent repetition of thoughts. Some have termed OCD the "Doubting Disease", which it is in a way very true. Your mind "doubts" you've done something correctly, so you keep repeating the action, whether it be hand washing or many other things. It's truly fascinating that doctors came up with this, and in my case, a lifesaver. In the past, I HAVE contemplated suicide, but never seriously enough to actually try. Medications like Luvox have given me a better way of life.
) in 2009, the only thing I've needed is turmeric oil capsules for a sore shoulder (rotator cuff injury playing disc golf). So I don't even take aspirin.
