Hey everyone! I've only posted once before when this last episode started happening. I wanted to share some background in the hopes that someone might relate to it. I used to have physical compulsions when I was a child like turning the light switch off and on ortouching something a certain number oftimes or repeating words. I would have obsessions like if I don't touch something, someone would get sick and die. When I was 15, I had this terrifying obsession of "what if I took a knife and murdered my family"?
When I was older, I began to have religious/philosophical obsessions, which were by far the scariest. I won't go into detail for the sake of other OCDers, but these thoughts, one in particular, are the ones that still comes back every now and then and the one I am struggling with now.
As I got older I outgrew most of the physical compulsions but I still might verbally say "stop" or "I do not accept that thought" outloud (by myself) or mentally say/pray these things, which, obviously, made the thoughts worse because I didn't actually realize that was a compulsion, thus, it reinforced the obsession and made it come back worse and more frequently.
I was diagnosed with Pure O officially when I was 21 and was hospitalized 3 seperate times over the course of 3 years. The last one was in 2008. I went to CBT and learned not to try to stop the thoughts but to kind of sit with the thought and let it "flow through". It has helped a lot even when I'm not on medication.
But this last obsession has come on strong so I went to the doc and he put me on 40mg Celexa a day, which I have never been on. After a couple days of taking it I had a baaaaaaaad panic attack, so I brought it down to 20mg for two weeks. Now I've been on 40mg for a week and I'm not really sure its working. I'm not constantly thinking about the obsessions anymore and have been using distraction, mostly reading, to help, but I just had another panic attack.
I'm gonna give it a few more weeks at 40mg to see if it helps. If anybody has experience with Celexa and/or philosophical obsessions, please feel free to share. It really helps to know you're not alone.
Thanks,
Cat
I have been taking Celexa for a while. I had to start at a tiny dose cuz of side effects and then verygradually got up to 40mg per day. I think it has helped some with the anxiety, and it definitely helped with my depression. I can't tell how much it helped with the ocd cuz I also started erp at the same time. I've never had a panic attack, so dunno if yours was related to the med or not.
Ok, I wanted to talk with your last post but I was kinda afraid too. I was on Celexa for ten years. As far as my pureO OCD issues, it was with out a doubt the best medicine that had ever worked for me. I wasn't completely silent up there but wow, it was a huge improvement. However, I was on 80mg a day for ten years. Three years ago they came out with a report in the UK that Celexa was causing certain people to have heart arythmias and it was killing them. The UK said anything over 20mg was dangerous. The US says 40mg is safe. I was on double that and it scared the crap outta me. I got off of the meds because I developed an immunity to any dose lower than 80 and 80mg isn't safe.I did it with a doctor's permission. You should never cold turkey medication. I had many of the symptoms you have described and some that were truly unbareable. The Celexa truly saved my life and it helped with postrtum OCD that was just the worst thing I had ever gone through.
So the best thing in my opnion is to give it time. It took a month to see any improvement on the 40. If you are going to be on it, it might be a good idea to get an EKG every once in awhile just to be safe. Or make sure you discuss your conerns with your doctor as they are always updating thier information on the drugs we take and thier side effects. If you feel it isn't working or it isn't worth the risk then that is up to you. What works for some may not work for others. I had a wonderful expieirence with Celexa and it really helped me, but then again I now have some things I feel are side effects for being on such a high dose for so long. Migraines, weird emotional crying outbursts when something is emotional….nothing too horrible just annoying. ( You probably wont get those as you aren't on twice the actual dose like I was) It really is up to you and what you feel is working for you.
I had been on most of the meds and although most of them helped somewhat, Celexa was the best for me. Unfortunately, I can't take it anymore. I have been meds free since then. Only because it was the only thing that helped me and there really isn't anything else out there right now that does what it did for me.
That being said it may not give you the same relief so you may want to try something else. I don't want to scare you, but I feel like you should know what they are saying about Celexa. Our news didn't report the findings and if you want to look it up to read more about it, you may have to look up the UK report about it. I was way too high and it could have killed me. Luckily, my EKG was normal and it seems like no damage was done that we know of. It could be a number of reason that these certain people got this and you may be perfectly safe, but I would ask your doctor just to be sure.
Sorry for the novel and I hope my information helped. I do not know why Celexa worked for me so well, except maybe the dosage, which could have been deadly. I don't know how well 40 does but it is a good medicine for OCD as far as I know. Just becareful and discuss it fully with your doctors. Good luck.