OCD Action

London Lad
Member

Hi all,

I went to see my proper GP yesterday, and he gave me Propranolol, which has calmed me down such a lot, considering it has not even had time to take it's full effect yet.
I had really bad days on Sunday and Monday, but after my first pill yesterday, I have felt so much calmer, and more at ease with everything. At the moment I seem to be thinking (not obsessing) about secondary thoughts. I gennerally feel more in control.

I also have a question regarding false memories......

Is it possible for someone in remission from OCD to have a false memory, even if they are not in the middle of an eppisode. I think I may have got memory mixed up about 3 years ago (when I wasn't suffering with OCD), this particular "Memory" caused me to have a false memory OCD eppisode about 6 months later.

Hope everyone has had a good day!

All best,

LL

Wed 16 May 2012 22:36 #
wannabefree
Member

Hi London Lad, good stuff, the medication is helping already, and that is fantastic... I guess it is possible to have the memories, but try not to worry about them, just relax and enjoy the effectiveness of the medication... Great stuff! Enjoy...
Wannabe

Wed 16 May 2012 22:45 #
London Lad
Member

Hi wannabefree,
Yes, I'm very much enjoying the meds right now. They've put a sense of normality back into my life.

LL

Wed 16 May 2012 23:06 #
London Lad
Member

Hi wannabefree,
Yes, I'm very much enjoying the meds right now. They've put a sense of normality back into my life.

LL

Wed 16 May 2012 23:06 #
Tess
Member

Hi LL
So pleased you are finding the meds effective. As for your question, I have no professional expertise so this is just my own opinion. If we have OCD I think we retain a lifelong susceptibility to recurrence of our symptoms if more stress comes into our lives than our brain can comfortably handle, or even for no apparent reason we can think of at the time. I think also that even if we have felt well for some time something very tiny can trigger an OCD thought - for instance at present I have a clean nappy bag hanging on the kitchen door handle for used tissues as I am still recovering from a nasty virus. My husband keeps the nappy bags outside and each day I tie up the used one and give it him to put in the dustbin and he gives me an unused one. Yesterday he put the new one in a tub which we use for eggs which he collects from the chickens and I immediately had an OCD thought - the outside of the bag is contaminated and it will be touching the kitchen door. I went ahead as normal and just hung it up but 12 hours later it is still bugging me - it will probably take a week before I can put it out of my mind and no doubt at some time in the future I will wipe down the kitchen door and say to myself that it is OK because it needed doing anyway. But I will be fooling myself because I know the fact that the bag has touched the door is imprinted in my mind and it will remain at the front of my memory. It would take me two seconds to wipe the door and put up a clean bag and that would erase the memory and sometimes I feel I am on a hiding for nothing not to just do it.
So my gut feeling is yes, it is very possible for someone in remission to have a false memory, in fact I would go so far as to say it is probably inevitable and we just learn to live with it.

Thu 17 May 2012 10:00 #
chaschas
Member

Hi LL,

My OCD is getting better since Xmas 2011 but even now I still have some intrusive thoughts/false memories which crop up normally when I'm stressed. For a while it sends me into a panic but then I have to steady myself and think "you've come this far, carry on". Propanolol is a good med - my partner took it for anxiety a while back and the difference was amazing - no shaking, more sleep, happier in general! So it's great that your GP has prescribed something that works for you, and lots of other people too

Chas

Thu 17 May 2012 10:37 #
Inca
Member

I know there's only a very very slim chance now of you reading this chas chas or London lad, i really wanted to ask you at the time, but i couldn't due to ocd. I was wondering, when you (or your boyfriend chas chas) take Propranolol does it help with the actual mental anxiety symptoms of ocd? Does it reduce your anxiety level and make you worry less? When i look on-line about it it always says it can only address the physical symptoms of anxiety, like palpitations etc and it can't help with the mental, but it seems like it possibly did help your mental anxiety?

I'd be very interested to know because i can't take any of the usual ocd medications like the SSRIs or Clomipramine, as anything that raises my serotonin levels in isolation has a really paradoxically bad effect on me (but i am in the minority here so please don't let me put anyone off trying...virtually everybody else seems to take them without any problem). I'm luckily able to take one anti-depressant that doesn't raise serotonin in isolation, it definitely works for my depression, but it doesn't do anything for my ocd. I've been given and offered Valium so many times but haven't ever actually tried it because I'm scared of the addiction thing, and I'm so desperate to find something that could actually help the ocd, even just a minute bit. Has anybody else tried Propranolol for ocd?

Inca.

Tue 2 Oct 2012 16:25 #
Tess
Member

Hi inca
I can't help you with the Propanolol as I'm one of the fortunate ones who respond well to SSRI meds but your post has got me thinking. I've been on seroxat for so long now I can't remember how I was before but I think it must have had a profound effect on my anxiety levels. I can understand you not wanting to take valium because of the risk of addiction. I keep a small quantity available as a management tool and I find it helpful - possibly I get as much benefit from knowing it's there if I need it as from actually taking it. Back in the 70's I was on it for a long time as it was used back then for treating OCD but it was found to be ineffective and discontinued and I came off it very easily with no withdrawal symptoms.
Have you tried clomipromine? It predates the SSRIs but it's still prescribed for OCD and some people find it very helpful. I can't take it because I have an allergic reaction to it, we are all so different when it comes to meds.

Tue 2 Oct 2012 19:20 #
DeSat
Member

Hi,

I was put on Propranalol whilst I was waiting to see a mental health professional. It's given out a lot for anxiety (even performance anxiety for people on stage etc.). I found that it helped take the edge of the physical symptoms so that I could rest and function a bit better- I didn't get that huge adrenaline rush every time I had a spike but it didn't stop me from over thinking and ruminating about stuff. I'm fortunate that Fluoxetine helps with that and apart from sleep issues (I've never been a big sleeper anyway) I don't really suffer too much. It took them both for a while

But, as Tess said, everyone is different, so it's very hard to know what will help and what won't.

Hope this is useful.

DeSat

Wed 3 Oct 2012 8:32 #
Cuthbert ffoliott
Moderator

Hi Tess and Inca -

Tess raises a good point. It's a regular issue in the biomedical literature: clomipramine (Anafrenil) is still prescribed frequently to people who don't respond well to fluoxetine and its brethren, so to speak. It is older than the current medicines of choice for OCD, the SSRIs. And some patients are well off with clomipramine. It does have a few more side effects (and perhaps one's blood may have to be tested every now and then, but that seems a very minor point to yours truly).

And, Inca, Tess is right: we're all different as to our responses to medication. I was on a valium-like substance too, for a long time. Got addicted. And had an awful time discontinuing it.

Wed 3 Oct 2012 9:37 #
Inca
Member

Thank you Tess, Desat and Cuthbert for your replies, I did try Clomipramine but unfortunately it did the same thing as the other ones that have a very strong serotonin effect. It seems that there is definitely a glitch in my brain's serotonin handling system, but whereas most people seem to improve if they increase their serotonin, with me my brain just does more of the wrong thing with it, the glitch just gets amplified and my anxiety levels just go ballistic as a result. Everything i read about propranalol says it's just helpful, like you describe desat, for physical anxiety symptoms, which i am ok about. i just long to be able to take something to help the mental anxiety. Even if it just improved it by 10% I would take it everyday for the rest of my life if necessary. Anyway i don't have any way of contacting London lad now.

Wed 3 Oct 2012 15:31 #
Inca
Member

Hi chaschas, you're back! I'd be so grateful if you could take a peek at a post i wrote above, hoping for you or london lad to pop back in....sorry you're having a rough spot though..

inca

Tue 30 Oct 2012 15:22 #