Help?

[sauly1991]

I'll first off start by saying this forum is a lifesaver, and thank you to all contributors.

I am however faced with a new challenge. We have people coming to prune and cut a couple of trees in our garden tomorrow, and this has got me incredibly worked up, if not more so because of the anticipation.. Im in the middle of a transition to Prozac (2 weeks today) and my OCD and anxiety has elevated over the last couple of days! My mind is telling me that I don't want the trees cut and they can't be cut, that it is stress and an inconvienience.

The thing that is REALLY getting to me is after it is all done, I.e. Not having The cuttings (I have mentioned previously on this forum that I had a problem with throwing stuff away/letting stuff go, it's only a recent new issue)....the fact the trees are being cut isn't really an issue because my rational mind knows they are messy and would grow back, it's something about the control and then the URGES to act, I feel if I resist the urges I'm resisting the present thoughts.....help :-( hope all this makes sense I'm posting from my phone so will check it over for mistakes when I've posted

[uru]

Hope you get some responses to this :)

[MyNameIsTerry]

Yeah, stopping compulsions can be hard but this one certainly gets easier over time. I've eliminated pretty much all of mine in recent years and believe me, I had many. Hundreds a day.

You are just starting a med and any increase to your OCD should be regarded as the med side effects. This should settle normally within 4-6 weeks but Prozac is a long half life med so it's unlikely to be before a month, see Genoire's current thread on the Prozac board as I've posted some info on why this is.

If after these periods your OCD is still higher than before you started, seek your GP's opinion as they may decide to switch if they think it is detrimental (some drugs can be "activating" for OCD or just not well tolerated). It can just be how your anxiety in general is increased during this time and some work after the side effects window can reduce it, hence why it's never a certainty with meds.

What is the urge that you feel? Urges, intrusive thoughts, etc are all part of OCD but it can be useful to understand what the compulsion is in order to work with it. For instance, I had many touching rituals and one way I used decrease them was to not touch over & over again but break the cycle by either limiting the number and getting away or focussing on a long touch and thinking about it as well.

I'm not suggesting that for you but just trying to highlight how there can be different strategies hence it's useful to understand the actual compulsion to make some suggestions.