obsessive thoughts

I have OCD.  Ive been on meds for about 5 years. Anafranil.  theyve always seemed to work.  Lately though,  not so much I think.   is this possible?  for meds to work for 5 years, then not?  Im obsessing again.  not about the same things as before,  but the same obsessive pattern.  

[Paxiled]

Meds do tend to stop working after a time.  Very common.  Are you in therapy?  Because no med will cure you, only you can do that.  As for whether you have OCD or not, it doesn't matter.  All anxiety is anxiety, it all needs to be worked on.  

[taraak]

Im in therapy.  my doctor just upped my anafranil.   we'll see.  

[flob]

sometimes i think there are quite a few people who might a ocd verses just having anxiety. the two can be very closely related in the obsessive nature of them. if you notice, quite a lot of people with anxiety do obsess over certain things, whether it be their health or something else. as paxiled said, it really doesn't matter. i suppose the only real difference, in my opinion, is in the compulsions. anyway, a med can stop working...but for me that hasn't happened. i also have ocd, and there was a time it was extremely severe. i still have it even though meds have helped A LOT. but the thing you have to remember is that even with meds, there are still ups and downs. it's very rare to take a med and never have problems again when it comes to anxiety, ocd, or even depression. infact, it's almost unheard of. so that being said, meds really are there to improve your overall general condition....but the thing that helps even more is the therapy. hopefully you're doing some form of therapy, and if not...maybe it's time to start. and as i said, it's possible for a med to stop working. it's also possible that it still is working, and this time would be much worse for you if you weren't on your meds. the question is do you feel like you did before you got on your meds? if so, maybe it's time to try something new. but no matter what, it's probably time to see a doc.

if you don't mind me asking...what have you been obsessing about?

[flob]

i just noticed your reply that says you're in therapy. didn't see that before i posted my reply.

[taraak]

i have intrusive thoughts about sex and violence, irrational fear of AIDS and obsessions about depersonalization.   My doc upped my med. tonight is the first night of that. I know it takes time.   I also have severe panic disorder.   they seem to feed off of each other lately.   I am also in talk therapy, just started that today also.   Ive been before, but have been "fine" for quite a few years now.    I just need a little reworking...some tweaks.  lol

[flob]

yeah. i feel like thats what i need sometimes too. have you always just been on this med or have you tried other meds also?

[flob]

you know... i started to read some of your other posts, and i've had many of the thoughts you mention. it's kind of scary. usually people don't understand what i mean if i share those thoughts with them. for example...what makes a person real. what makes any of us real. if by chance god doesn't exist, then when you really think about it, nothing is real. because whether god exists or not, there has to be something much larger than the entire universe we live in, and the universe is quite large when you think about it so the idea of something larger and more complex and completely random (if there is no god) is overwhelming. and then if god does exist...out of all the billions and billions of people to have existed, why on earth would god care about anything i have to say or think? why would my existance even matter when you look at how HUGE those numbers are. and then what makes each of us real? is it a soul or just our mind? i used to think it was a soul that made me me, but i'm started to wonder if it really could be just the mind that makes me feel like my own individual self. my theory tended to be that if there was no god and we didn't have souls, we would be like trees...living organisms without feelings of our own. basically, we'd just be machines without real consciousness.

anyway...enough of that. i just saw a couple of your posts and could relate to that way of thinking.

[taraak]

Ive been on klonopin for 18 years. until 3 days ago.  now Im on ativan.    I was on tofranil for depession for 13 years, then my new doc said OCD, and put me on anafranil.  it all seemed to be working fine until a month ago.