Yes, I really think it is. But I sometimes describe OCD recovery as trying to walk up a down escalator. Some days I am tired and walk slower so the escalator carries me down. Some days I am energetic and I can make good progress. What the fluvoxamine did for me was to slow the escalator down. It let me make progress by weakening the OCD enough to I've me a chance to move forward.
Side effects are few. I sleep less well, except, for some reason, after lunch, when I have to struggle to not go face down on my desk! I didn't drink at all for the first nine months and then started allowing myself small amounts since it seems to have a greater effect on me (which saves money!)
Before fluvoxamine I was on all sorts of things. I was heavily sedated early on which I think might have been deliberate because I was really very anxious. On fluvoxamine I noticed a difference early on but was taking it together with another druh, mirtazapine, I think, and it knocked me out. I had to choose which one to stop taking (in discussion with my psychiatrist) and chose right.
I know that medication is a contentious subject here, but it worked for me and gave me my life, and job, and family back, so I remain unapologetically keen on it. I know others don't feel that way and I really do respect that. But I was so low and the slope up was so steep, anything that helped was worthwhile.
I don't know why fluvoxamine is not used commonly in the uk. Perhaps it is because it seems to have a slightly lower success rate than other ssri s and I think I'm right that it is not as powerful a drug for depression as Prozac. But I was diagnosed with depression for years before we realised it was caused by the OCD and not the other way round, so effectively it has lifted my depression.
I've no axe to grind. We all have to find our own paths out of OCD. My path does not represent a route map for anyone but me. I used medication, and cbt, and therapy, and books, and a lot of KitKats. I don't think the Meds cured me, but I think they bought me a breathing space that allowed the other treatments to work.
I have spent a lot of time since I joined this forum trying to work out why people are against using Meds. In some cases their symptoms or medical conditions stop them and I feel very sorry for those people. But there others who resist medication, but still drink. And smoke. And take aspirin. And caffeine. I think that for some people there is a stigma associated with medication for mental health. This is caused, I believe, by the representations of Valium addicted zombies from the seventies. Modern SSRIs are not addictive. They have relatively few side effects (certainly compared to commonly available over the counter drugs).
My first drug for depression was one of the first generation tricyclics. It had so many powerful side effects that I still think I have some of them now, thirty years later. It was essentially a drug the evened out moods so I became not happy, not sad. A bit of a. Zombie. Also it was so toxic that it was known as "loaded gun" and depressives weren't given too many at a time. The modern ones are amazing.
Sorry, you've triggered off a lot of things that I've been thinking about.
I hope some of it is of interest or use
Best wishes
David
Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder (OCD)
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