PeterB wrote:No ones mind is made clearer by cannabis or alcohol.
At best one might experience some temporary relief from the kind of pressure of thought, heightened affect, and hypervigilence that is part of the predisposing factors that manifest as OCD....but there are other ways to achieve this that do not breach the 5th precept.
* I would like to share this... I am not asking for guidance, sympathy or help... I just hope the information sheds light on the way in which people experience and deal with struggle.
*
You are apparently not familiar with Treatment Refractory Obsessive Compulsive Disorder. Close to 40% of people with this disorder find little if ANY benefit from conventional medications and therapy. There are surprisingly few medications out there that are effective.
Also this says nothing of the side effects of the drugs that are prescribed. IF you really want to try an altered state try this:
Double Strength Lexapro (we briefly upped this a little higher, but I really HATED it), One dose of Seroquel an antipsychotic, an additional double dose of Wellbutrin (to level off the side effects of the first two... which made me shake and vommit), and then klonopin or valium for intermintant panic attacks.
You should keep in mind that all of these medications alter your weight and sleeping habbits. All of them come with recommendations not to drive. All of them (with maybe the exception of wellbutrin) have dangerous withdrawal side effects (almost all of them can precipitate seizures if stopped too quickly), overdosing issues, etc. Have you ever heard of serotonin syndrome? It was a risk I had to live with DAILY when I was dealing with these drugs. Cymbalta triggered massive manic issues in me.
This was the most effective combination, but it was not the first I went on. I was also placed on several zoloft/wellbutrin and celexa combinations. I have been placed at one time or another on most of the SSRI's, several of the antipsychotic, anti panic dugs, and a handful of the SRNI's. Cymbalta makes me go manic, and I was nearly hospitalized on it.
In addition to this I did CBT.
In order to go on higher dosages, psychiatrists have to scale you up. Otherwise the side effects would be too overwhelming. So each drug in that cocktail had to have several weeks establishing each level of a dosage (going up or down). There are too many side effects to mention here... ringing, electrical sensations, loss of emotions, ... all well documented and several of which have been the subject of lawsuits against the drug makers. All of these medications are dangerous. The bottles they come in say so.
Without treatment I wash my hands with toxic chemicals. It blisters them and they bleed. I have a tendency to count and repeat things indefinitely in my head. I could list a number of behaviours that would seem very strange, both to you and me. Not walking on cracks (and then if I did tracing the pattern of a Chess piece with my foot). I would sometimes worry that I had driven over an animal on my way home from work, and begin looping around the block multiple times to assure myself I hadn't harmed anybody or anything. An individual with a neurosis is aware their behavior doesn't make sense, but has difficulty or an inability to alter it. I had to be hospitalised once in college. It was an experience I would prefer not to repeat.
People with OCD generally show inflammation in specific regions of the brain. They also show increased IQ scores, though I have no idea what mine was .
You seem to have a very different understanding of psychology.
I am open to suggestions, but as I have pointed out, I am quite happy with the level of functionality I have achieved
You can continue to denigrate it, but you will fail to make me into the unhappy version of myself you have constructed.
Two degrees, multiple clubs and organisation (several of which I was elected to leadership positions in), a disciplined athletic life, and a huge circle of friends. When I still had very severe symptoms I had very few friends and found it difficult to interact with people without getting very distracted by the static in my head. "People" have been the greatest gift I have received.
***from wikipedia (lol, because I actually am really that lazy
)
Treatment of OCD is an area needing significant improvement in prescribing regimens.[47] Benzodiazepines are sometimes used, although they are generally believed to be ineffective for treating OCD; however, effectiveness was found in one small study.[48] Serotonergic antidepressants typically take longer to show benefit in OCD than with most other disorders they are used to treat. It is common for 2–3 months to elapse before any tangible improvement is noticed. In addition to this, treatment usually requires high dosages. Fluoxetine, for example, is usually prescribed in dosages of 20 mg per day for clinical depression, whereas with OCD the dosage often ranges from 20 mg to 80 mg or higher, if necessary.
In most cases antidepressant therapy alone provides only a partial reduction in symptoms, even in cases that are not deemed treatment resistant. Much current research is devoted to the therapeutic potential of the agents that affect the release of the neurotransmitter glutamate or the binding to its receptors. These include riluzole, memantine, gabapentin, N-Acetylcysteine (
**this is a really cool antioxidant apart from this conversation, if you have the flu its great), and lamotrigine. MDMA, which is a powerful and illicit serotonergic drug, has also been anecdotally reported to temporarily alleviate the symptoms of OCD.[citation needed]
The atypical antipsychotics olanzapine, quetiapine, and risperidone have also been found to be useful as adjuncts to an SSRI in treatment-resistant OCD. However, these drugs are often poorly tolerated, and have significant metabolic side effects that limit their use. None of the atypical antipsychotics have demonstrated efficacy as a monotherapy.[49]