Can I beat this

[Scared 400]

I am a 38yr male. I have never had any symptoms of OCD during my life until last year.
I have had some anxiety through my life ( but didn

[Need'N'GiveHelp]

Well, I'm not sure what it is to you, but it seems to me that your anxiety could stem from underlying guilt.  If it started about the time you broke up with that girl you love, and had sex with a girl you DIDN'T, could that be a possible solution?  Perhaps you even feel guilty for not giving up your career for a woman you love, as maybe your priorities aren't what you think they are, and you just feel terrible about that whole situation.  I may be wrong, but I simply wish to help a fellow man in need.

[Scared 400]

I go to a talk therapist once a week that talks for about 45 minutes then uses

[Scared 400]

I never did any counting or excessive checking(ecept medical checking). I have herd of Pure O and this scares me.

[Scared 400]

Alex, have you seen a therapist on a regular basis for last six years?

[Jenny Wren]

Its under patient-to-patient forums. On the left hand side, ANXIETY.  It under the listings for the doctor-to-patient forums.  See ya!!

[imcrazy2]

I can't find the forum you are talking about....can you post a link or something?

[Jenny Wren]

Just wanted to let everyone know, if they didn't already. There is a new patient-to-patient "anxiety" forum here now.  I'm sure I'll see ya all over yonder, yee haw!!!!!!

[Scared 400]

Johnathan, thanks for such an in depth reply. Are you an MD ?
Anyway I was wondering about the importance you put on exactly what type of anxiety/depression I have.
I have chose and will only use meds as a last resort. As long as I

[imcrazy2]

Do you ever have times when you are not anxious?  If so, do these symptoms bother you as much at those times?  A really good measure of whether something is anxiety-based (I should really listen to my own advice, here!) is to see how you feel when you are not anxious.  If you ALWAYS feel anxious, try something like a benzo or anti-depressant.....If you had parkinsons, it would have been diagnosed, so please try not to worry.  You most assuredly do not have parkinson's.

[alex123]

John MD please answer me

My name is Alex im 27yrs old, for the last 6 years i have been suffering from ocd and anxiety, my main worries over these 6 years has been thinking i have HIV with every girl i come in to some sort of sexual contact with, even though i have always used protection.
I have had around 35 blood tests in the last 6 years just for this disease and have always been negative,so everytime im with a girl oraly or sexually i become a hermet at home for 3 months till i know i have passed the window period for HIV and i can get an 100% result, fortuanlly my doctor understands my neurosis and never turns me away which is a huge help.

But now i have started on a new venture of ocd and anxiety a disease called parkinsons.

I started to notice twitches in my fingers, as soon as i saw this i searched the net for symptoms of parkinsons and now believe i am a parkinson sufferer.

My today symptoms are the following:
Stiff aches and pains in my neck and shoulders and ankles.
slight tremors in legs,hands and arms.(more on the left side)
twitches all over my body and times of the day.
Constipation and week urine passing.

I have been back to the doctor with all these symptoms and he assured me its all anxiety,due to my anxious and neurotic ways i demanded a referal to a neurologist.

So last week i went an saw the head proffesor of neurology at one of australia's leading hospitals.

He did all the muscle and reflexes test and assesed me all over and found there was nothing wrong, that alot of this is from my anxiety and told me i would be best to see an anxiety specialist.

For some reason i still believe i have parkinsons, im having a very tough time at the moment i cant stop surfing the next looking for an explanation, and what makes it worse is when you see how Michael J Fox started to notice a twitch in his pinky finger and then had tremors and pains in his shoulders, which inturn was diagnosed with parkinsons.

I know i am highly anxious and it is becoming hard to know if i am just imagining all this.

Please help me does it sound like i have parkinsons.

Regards
Alex

[jonathan06]

It seems that you are suffering from obsessive worry but that is also seen in depression and anxiety disorders.   The problem with OCD is the attempt to lump together two seperate disorders.  There are doctors who believe there is no true disorder which unites obsessive behavior with compulsive activity.   Before you spend a great deal of time and effort being treated, get a proper diagnosis.  You mention no compulsive behaviors, are there any?  Do you check and re-check things like locks on doors?  Do you wash your hands or bath more than 10 times a day?  

It is tragic to be treated (sometime for years) for a a disorder you don't have.  Clearly you have obsessive worries which are profoundly affecting your life.   You also seem to have anxiety as well.   Can you say whether the worries are driving the anxiety or whether the anxiety is driving your worries?   That may seem like a strange statement but if you can answer that you will have come a long way to see where you are and how you got there.  

For example:
Patient Z worries that he may have contracted a disease from a co-worker.  Now he cannot stop thinking about the disease and is anxious all the time, the more Patient Z thinks about the disease the more anxious he/she becomes.

Or, Patient Z has always been mildly anxious.  It has never been a problem until this person lost their job and money became tight and now they worry that on top of that Patient Z feels he/she is disabled by a heart condition because of a constant pain in the chest which was never there before.  Patient Z now restricts what kind of jobs to look for and becomes even more prone to anxiety as the walls seem to close in on him/her.

One problem is the desire to consolidate and simplify matters.  OCD seems like a good ideas, except most people who suffer with  depression also have some prominent obsessive tendencies, or patients who suffer from chronic anxiety tend to dwell obsessively on health, death, money, homelessness, loneliness etc....

I don't know if this helps, but I
have seen so many patients who have come to me after being treated for the wrong disorder for years - and now they have lost years of their lives being treated for some illness which they never had to begin with.

[alex123]

mate,

I thought i was bad..

Let me tell i have the same problem, but really to be afraid of having a drink after another is maddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddd.

But i have to say i feel better knowing ppl have the same worries as me.

But no doubt u did not contract anything from that.

I wish i had that worry, i now believe i have parkinson's disease, gotta tell ya its really giving me the pips, even though i have seen a top neurologist and he said its anxiety,but i still have made another appointment with another top neurologist for next week, that how ****** i am.

Anxiety OCD is just a real *****.

Be Well

[imcrazy2]

This is pretty classic OCD....you have a major uphill battle ahead of you.  First, YOU CAN NOT NOT NOT NOT get HIV/AIDS from saliva.  Blood, semen, and vaginal fluids are the ONLY way.  Therapy is good, glad to hear that you feel it is helping.  I also understand the stigma of medications like antidepressants, BUT.....(big BUT), PLEASE don't count them out.  6 weeks is not nearly long enough to decide if an antidepressant is working....by then, your body has only just begun to adjust to the chemical change.  I realize you want to feel like you are strong enough to deal with your issues on your own, but coming from someone with ISSUES, including some OCD type stuff and health anxieties/paranoia (read my latest post, if you want), the right medication can STOP those thoughts and obsessions in their tracks, to the point that you may not have them at all.  Do you have any other obsessions or compulsive behaviors?

[Roger Gould, M.D.]

This can be treated without meds, there is a reason for this anxiety, and therapy is the right approach.   I am not a fan of using diagnostic labels. These are symptoms of an underlying anxiety about something else, and you have to discover what that is.