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forum Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder (OCD)

Started SSRI, feeling worse

(8 posts) (6 voices)
  • Started 1 year ago by sarah81
  • Latest reply from sarah81
  • This topic is A support question
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    sarah81
    Member

    Hi everyone
    I haven't posted for a long time. For those who don't know/remember me, I am in medical school and also suffer from pretty bad contamination OCD mainly regarding blood. As you might guess this puts quite a strain on my daily life. It was not such a problem for me until about 8 months ago when I really started obsessing a lot.
    I am seeing a psychologist and have started on Escitalopram (an SSRI) a week ago. Am slowly increasing the dosage. However, so far, I feel like the last week has been much worse than usual in terms of my obsessive worrying. I am not experiencing any side effects, just feeling like my worrying is really escalating. I realize that people who are depressed and start on SSRIs often feel worse at the start of treatment, but is this common for those mainly suffering from OCD?
    Has anyone else experienced this phenomenon, and if so, when did you start feeling better?

    Tue Nov 23 2010 18:59:32 #
  2. Avatar Image


    Unregistered

    I don't really know for this one as I take a different medication to this one, but I think when you start most medications for OCD it will make it worse for a little bit until the medication really starts kicking in.
    Hang in there, or as my friend says, keep on truckin'.

    Tue Nov 23 2010 20:20:50 #
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    aishah
    Member

    Hi Sarah,

    Sorry your feeling bad at the moment. I take 30mg of Escitalopram at the moment and will be increasing again soon. I switched from Citalopram 40mg to Escitalopram at the beginning of the year as I was suffering from a major depressive episode and I did find it helped a lot to lift the depression quite quickly too.

    I started on 20mg then went up to 30mg, I definately had a worsening of my OCD when I increased the dose and it really was quite bad but it settled down after about two weeks so try to hang on in there as I'm sure it will settle down for you too.

    Hope this helps

    Bridget

    Wed Nov 24 2010 9:24:02 #
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    Unregistered

    Dear Sarah, My OCD became worse when I started any new SSRI. Try to stick with it if you can, because this doesn't usually last. Remember that it can take much longer than for depression for an SSRI to help with OCD. I've heard that many GPs will take OCD patients off an SSRI too quickly, assuming they should have responded the same as for depression.

    Love, Tricia.

    Wed Nov 24 2010 14:49:55 #
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    Unregistered

    P.S. I honestly can't recall how long it lasted, no more than a few weeks.

    Wed Nov 24 2010 14:52:34 #
  6. Avatar Image

    rich2
    Member

    Hi Sarah

    SSRI's can increase anxiety and cause disturbed sleep when you start them can make worrying/intrusive thoughts worse. It can take a while for the positive effects to start. I think it took about three months for the Sertraline I'm on to really kick in, but it possibly took longer than it should have done because I was coming off Diazepam and had bad withdrawak symptoms from that. Stick with it though. In my experience it's definitely worth it.

    Take care
    Rich

    Wed Nov 24 2010 21:00:00 #
  7. Avatar Image

    bunnymad
    Member

    Hi my Symptoms got much worse when i first went on my SSRI medication. i have had to gradually go from 10mg to 75mg of Clomipramine and i have been on it for eight weeks now and only now am i starting to feel like a normal human being. Still battling a few ocd problems but it is getting better. Still feel a little paranoid and as a side affect i have a really bad memory and i cant remember if i have said things or dreamt them, but believe me i would rather feel like this than the way i was before.

    Hope this helps, it will get better, you may have set backs but once the meds kick in, you will eventually notice a massive difference.

    Fri Nov 26 2010 20:11:52 #
  8. Avatar Image

    sarah81
    Member

    Thanks you guys for the encouragement. I am a little unsure as to whether my OCD symptoms are genuinely worse or if it has been due to outside events. Had an occupational exposure to blood a few days ago (I am a health care worker) which really freaked me out, but it would probably have been disturbing to a "normal" person as well, although not to this extent.
    I am also worrying about stuff that I thought I had put behind me. I really hate it when this happens. It is so hard for me to finally put a worrisome thought "to rest" and then sometimes the same thought comes back again after weeks or months with a renewed vengeance.
    It is interesting to hear that it has taken as long as 3 months for some of you to feel better whilst on SSRIs; I will try to give it that long at least.
    Thanks for all your replies

    Wed Dec 1 2010 20:16:42 #

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