Is there a cure for OCD?

[CyanideSoup]

I can't cope with my OCD anymore and I really don't know what to do, I have the 'pure O' type and I feel like I'm losing my mind more and more daily. I have to put off CTB for a while but I don't know if I can put up with this any longer. Is there any way to make it go away? Please, any advice would be so appreciated..

 

[Rachel74]

There are things to do that help but not overly cure it.

 

[falconeyes]

I can't cope with my OCD anymore and I really don't know what to do, I have the 'pure O' type and I feel like I'm losing my mind more and more daily. I have to put off CTB for a while but I don't know if I can put up with this any longer. Is there any way to make it go away? Please, any advice would be so appreciated..

Well, try mainly these 2 steps:
- To overcome the anxiety resulted from the OCD, use mild medication that make you relaxed, personally i used to take any med. contains Diphenhydramine like (Benadryl, Unisom, Sominex), mainly they are OCT antihistaminic and sleeping pills, just take half tablet to feel relaxed. Do NOT use benzos or alcohols.

- While you are in relaxed mood, in a small personal notebook or any paper, start to write down the repeated, intrusive, and uncontrollable thoughts (or obsessions) that attack your mind, no matter how these obsessions are bizarre or hard on your mind, just keep writing them down one by one and REPEATEDLY in daily basis.
The key step to overcome the Pure O OCD is to let your mind flow and accept the obsessions without fighting back by enforcing your mind with contradicted thoughts, once your mind accept these obsessions, then simply they wont be obsessions anymore.

 

[LonelyLight]

Sometimes I think I'm losing my mind. I have the weird thing (I don't know if it would be a form of OCD?) But it's this thing against colours...
For example green yellow and orange are good colors, anything to do with them I'm good with.
Blue and red are sad and angry colors,
If for example someone gave me a red straw to drink from, I can't do it, or if i do and something inconvenient happens, I'll blame the fact it was a red straw.... oh god I'm a weirdo I've never written this down before....
The other thing I do is, for example,
I'll be brushing my teeth and I'll think "if you don't rinse your mouth 10 times somethings going to happen"
Can you or anyone relate to me at all???

 

[Angst Filled Fuck Up]

I struggled with debilitating OCD for years. What helped me was realizing that OCD is basically an offshoot of anxiety. Once I recognized just how interconnected these types of things are, I knew my only option was medication. So I got on an SSRI/benzo combo which allowed me to feel unfazed and with that, the pure O began to dissipate. It's worth exploring all your options as far as meds go. There are a lot of shitty ones out there that do nothing or make you feel even worse, but once you've found something that works, you'll be on your way out of the woods.

 

[CozyTime]

There is and there isn't. The trickiest thing with these mental issues is that it goes from person to person what will be needed to truly cure it and if thats even possible.

I have OCD and while I lack knowledge of what pure O is I know how it feels to have it be constantly harassing your mind 24/7 leaving you feeling like there is no escape from it while still alive.

There are ways of therapy that have cured some peoples OCD, for example exposure therapy has cured some people straight up leaving them without any signs of their OCD. Cognitive behavioral therapy is another way that has helped many others suffering with OCD.

For me both methods left my OCD unchanged, no medication has worked yet either.

I can't really put how bad I think OCD is into words because there really aren't any words specific enough to describe the torture the mind forces you to go through so I hope that the therapy or medication available to you (if any) will help you out and maybe even cure your OCD.

All that said if you're looking for mostly short term ways of potentially relieving yourself of the OCD here are some things I do but bare in mind this is not me recommending them exactly simply saying this is what works for me if I desperately need short/long term relief and sometimes even if the methods are bad its still better mentally than to let the OCD run wild sometimes.

Short term: Self-harm, Alcohol, Snus (tobacco), Weed, Eating/Drinking something I really enjoy, Sexual relief, Music, Sleeping.
These are things are lets face it, basic and usually come with a negative consequence but for me they can do the job and give me anything from a few seconds to hours worth of lesser OCD which can be a life saver quite literally.

Long term: Games, Books, Shows, Guitar (any instrument really), Spending time with the person you love.
Hobbies really but more something you can try your best to focus on and try to get lost in. Unfortunately my OCD has now stopped me from reading books almost entirely, same with instruments.

Long term are really "general" ones but seriously if I did not have any hobbies that were able to take away my mind from my OCD I'd be dead a long time ago.

Sorry for the long post, hopefully if my post wasn't helpful then others have been. OCD is horrible and I am sorry you have to suffer I hope you find a way of dealing with it because you deserve to live a life without it.

 

[Sweet emotion]

I can't cope with my OCD anymore and I really don't know what to do, I have the 'pure O' type and I feel like I'm losing my mind more and more daily. I have to put off CTB for a while but I don't know if I can put up with this any longer. Is there any way to make it go away? Please, any advice would be so appreciated..

You need to see a the who specializes in OCD. I have it too and at 15 it got bad to the point where I wanted to die. Medication and a good therapist can help you. You may not find the tight therapist right away. Sometimes you have to try them out for a while and then if they're not helping or offering you anything then you go see another one. It can't be cured but it certainly can be helped. You have nothing to lose.

 

[Jengator]

I can't cope with my OCD anymore and I really don't know what to do, I have the 'pure O' type and I feel like I'm losing my mind more and more daily. I have to put off CTB for a while but I don't know if I can put up with this any longer. Is there any way to make it go away? Please, any advice would be so appreciated..

Exercise, sunlight, spraying magnesium oil all over your body, CBD, juicing, a paleo diet, stay away from sugar, caffeine, and gluten.

 

[Final_frontier]

OMG finally someone who has the same issues as mine. I haven't seen anyone mentioning OCD here, like its not bad enough of an issue to ctb. Its a terrible affliction. its like a tape playing in your head 24X7 and you feel terrible 24X7 . I feel you honey, hugs. I've been auffering from OCD since I was 12, now I'm 25. Its mainly been the pure O type and its terrible. I had a severe depressive episode last year, and then the OCD was reduced to like 20% and then i managed ro eliminate the remaining 20%. Now I'm still struggling with depression.
You can pm me if you want.

OMG finally someone who has the same issues as mine. I haven't seen anyone mentioning OCD here, like its not bad enough of an issue to ctb. Its a terrible affliction. its like a tape playing in your head 24X7 and you feel terrible 24X7 . I feel you honey, hugs. I've been auffering from OCD since I was 12, now I'm 25. Its mainly been the pure O type and its terrible. I had a severe depressive episode last year, and then the OCD was reduced to like 20% and then i managed ro eliminate the remaining 20%. Now I'm still struggling with depression.
You can pm me if you want.

At least you were diagnosed and treated early. I hid my OCD from parents for 5 years and by the time I told them and got help, I was a depressed mess. Stupid kid i was.

 

[SlackJim]

Have you thought about trying psychedelics?

"Marked decreases in OCD symptoms of variable degrees were observed in all subjects during 1 or more of the testing sessions (23%–100% decrease in YBOCS score)"

https://maps.org/research-archive/w3pb/2006/2006_Moreno_22868_1.pdf

 

[Rational Suicide]

Glad I found this thread. I'm an OCD sufferer and have symptoms of both Pure-O and Social Anxiety OCD, this including Staring OCD and Alienation OCD. The compulsions have included compulsive staring at private parts and peripheral staring. Alongside my weird appearance this has led to me being shamed and accused of being a seedy pervert and the mob have pretty much ruined my reputation and my psyche. Can't really get away from the consequences of all this misfortune in today's world where everyone has a camera. So for me this has social consequences as well as physical and mental ones.

I'd like to hope that there is an actual cure for OCD which is possible and by that I mean something which targeted the trigger centres of the brain like proton-beam therapy. If a computer plays up then you can run software and hardware scans, checks and if needed replace parts or improve them. Aren't our minds at least an equal priority? Shouldn't we try to fix people with cognitive dysfunctions like OCD?

I know there have been times when my OCD has been reduced an easily controlled but not when I'm under stress, especially while being ostracised! I would like my brain rewired enough so that I can feel reduced anxiety most of the time rather than occasionally. When I not shifty and anxious, people tend to get on with me fairly okay. It would be worth going to those lengths imo.

Unfortunately this is all hypothetical since no treatment like that is even close to being applied to OCD. All we get offered by most health services is mass produced bullshit meds that are full of side effects which might work but that's lucky and rare or we get to talk about it which really tells you where we are at in this society when talking about having OCD symptoms is considered a revelation but really is just where you start....

 

[Jengator]

I feel like there is no cure for OCD but you can reduce it naturally. Takes a lot of research

 

[lizinha]

I have ocd too. I take lexapro 40 mg and it helps reduce it mildly. There are also exercises you can do to lessen it but there is no permanent cure for it

 

[Nyanpasuu]

I have OCD too and this think sucks, I have been in countless medication and the one that helped me a lot was fluvoxamine, It didn't eliminated completely, but it reduced it by 60%. One thing that doctors have told me is that OCD can be a product of other problems like past traumas or other mental problems, this is a mechanism that your brain take to "protect" itself, so sometimes if you can resolve your other problem you are helping to remove your OCD.
But well I hope someday there is a cure for this horrible thing, I really hate it, it's like you have a ton of bullies inside of your head making you doubt everything and harassing you, all at the same time. I can't wait to ctb to finally be free of all this.

Long term: Games, Books, Shows, Guitar (any instrument really), Spending time with the person you love.
Hobbies really but more something you can try your best to focus on and try to get lost in.

This also helps, I recently started playing the guitar again and started reading also and it has help me be more relaxed and less anxious. Things that require full concentrations are things that can help.

 

[person123]

There is no cure, brain diseases are hardest for scientists to study.

 

[iDieUDie80]

I know exactly what you're going through. The best thing you can do is to allow the thoughts to come and try to be mindful. Recognize the thoughts for what they are: thoughts. It doesn't matter if they are positive, negative, pleasant or disturbing, they are only thoughts and are only harmful if you let them be. If this is difficult for you to do, which it is for me, seek out an OCD specialist who will engage in ERP (Exposure Response Prevention) therapy with you. No, there is not a cure for OCD, but there is effective treatment, and ERP was designed to treat OCD and has a 65-80% success rate among patients.

 

[Fullof pain]

I have had OCD all my life, my mum remembers strange behaviours when I was a child, about dirt and order and counting. Nothing has improved it for me apart from accepting it is there and choosing not to listen to it, if that makes sense. " I hear you but I'm not acting on you" Slowly the volume control on the OCD goes down.

 

[voyager (D)]

I can't cope with my OCD anymore and I really don't know what to do, I have the 'pure O' type and I feel like I'm losing my mind more and more daily. I have to put off CTB for a while but I don't know if I can put up with this any longer. Is there any way to make it go away? Please, any advice would be so appreciated..

I used to have OCD. I was overly tidy and rigid, I wanted perfection in everything. I checked 100 times whether all electrical appliances were off and whether the doors and windows were closed before I could leave the house. I had to think through some things over and over again without coming to a conclusion, I could hardly tolerate other opinions and tastes and could never relax.

A psychiatrist once told me that it could be seen as an attempt to overcome depression.

You can't fight OCD. But at some point I learned to let go, to allow grief, not to fight something that I am powerless to do.. It doesn't happen overnight. But now I am pretty relaxed and tolerant.

My depression has remained, but life has become easier.

Letting go is the key.

 

[mathieu]

High doses of antidepressants can help.

 

[Deleted member 1465]

Prozac worked for me for around 8 months them stopped working. Twenty years of SSRIs didn't do anything positive and have contributed to my metabolic stress now. Aversion of immersion therapy or whatever it's called...no fucking way, that's insane. As of I want to subject myself to that.
Of all the things that plague me, OCD makes me actually feel insane.