does anyone knows a non medicine or a supplement that helps OCD ?

[raven381]

i need to take a non medicine supplement for OCD , please help me in case anybody knows ,

thank you

[raven381]

ok thanks for the nice illustration, so as i understand one must be living in a helpful country and has a bit more time than others in order to live in this way.

in Lebanon its impossible to get these supplements , i only ordered inositol powder but as you mentioned its not enough,

other than that doctors barely give us time for therapy and medicines.

medicine is a lebanese way also,

i hope one day a non medicine way will come to play

thanks for your time,i appreciated

i will just return on seroxat if i cannot handle it anymore in the near future

[raven381]

for me 20 mg was okay , although sometimes even while taking it i can still be in a little bad days, but it worked for me for like 8-9 years, on and off , when i begin to feel great i decrease the dosage and stop it gradually

then when it hits again sometime after 10 months sometime 6 months and sometimes even after 3 months

this is what made me angry that it began 10 months free till now lately, april 2013 i stopped it ( i thought that i will stay great for like minimum 6-10 months, but it hit me in july ( just 3 months later) that what made me angry and began to think about the med in a negative way

now it has been 10 months off med, but im have been hit 3 times ( when i say hit i mean the Pure O hits my head and fog enter to the road while im driving the car) this is how i describe my situation for the past 9 years

its on 3 types as a form of an example:

type 1 : im driving my car in a peaceful way with a good road and clear view. ( this is when im not in a Pure O situation just living kind of normally some days might have bad thoughts but it kind of pass without stopping and taking meds)

type 2 : im driving my car clearly and peacefully and as a sudden from nowhere i dunno how fog comes to my path and it makes me stop the car and i should turn on the lights and fog lights in order to continue ( this is the situation where i take seroxat in order to continue, the lights and fog lights are the seroxat.

type 3 :  im driving my car clearly and peacefully and as a sudden from nowhere i dunno how fog comes to my path and it makes me stop the car but i decide not to turn on the car nor the lights (seroxat) coz you now the reason , this makes me drive very slowly coz i dont see clearly hoping that the fog will go off and it will be clear again. NB: this is my situation now.

i hope that these 3 type examples makes you understand more about my situation that i have been living since 9 years

[Paxiled]

Natural treatment for anxiety is quite different than taking one supplement.  You need a program, which will differ depending on the cultural background of the practitioner.  Several remedies will be used, not just one -- for example, something to balance the adrenals, something for relaxation, something for helping the body manufacture what it needs.  Practitioners of integrated medicine, who are trained in both natural and allopathic medicine, will look for any possible physiological cause to eliminate that as a possibility.  Dietary changes, exercise regimens, therapy, meditation will be used.  It's very complex.  A good overview of what's out there can be found in a book called Natural Highs by Hyla Cass, a psychiatrist at UCLA who uses natural remedies in her practice.  But as with medication, there's no guarantee of success, and it takes a lot of discipline and work much like CBT therapy does.  As for the post above, dosages aren't scientifically proven at all -- studies on any kind of anxiety are very small, use few patients, and weed out difficult cases.  There's a lot more research on depression, but anyone who follows this knows success isn't that easy with any modality.  People metabolize drugs differently, and very high doses of these meds increase side effects and make it even harder than it already is to quit taking them if that becomes desired or necessary.  Tapering off Paxil gave me OCD, I never had it before.  So it is very hard to generalize.  I know medication is the American way, it's easy to do for both patient and practitioner, and is often the only treatment we have, but we should be careful to tell anyone, hey, take this dosage, that'll work, because we don't know.  That's why careful psychiatrists taper up slowly and stop when something works, and carefully taper down when it's time to stop.  Any other way isn't careful and makes it hard to monitor side effects and effectiveness.  Good luck all.



,

[57Carol]

Paxil is the trade name here in America. It is called seroxat in other parts of the world, so it is the same drug. The therapuetic level is the dosage required to work for the problem it is treating. All SSRI's of which Paxil is one, need to be at higher levels (larger doses) for OCD than they are when prescribed just for depression. Here is the chart.

What Are the Usual Doses for These Drugs?

High doses are often needed for these drugs to work in most people. Studies suggest that the following doses may be needed:

    fluvoxamine (Luvox®) - up to 300 mg/day

    fluoxetine (Prozac®) - 40-80 mg/day

    sertraline (Zoloft®) - up to 200 mg/day

paroxetine (Paxil®) - 40-60 mg/day

    citalopram (Celexa®) - up to 80 mg/day*

  clomipramine (Anafranil®) - up to 250 mg/day

    escitalopram (Lexapro®) - up to 40 mg/day

  venlafaxine (Effexor®) - up to 375 mg/day

that is a little out of date, as now the recommended dosage for celexa is only 40 mg because of potential heart problems, anyway Paxil is at least double, and can be triple the dosage you have been prescribed. You might show this to the psychiatrist, and the source is the International Obsessive Compulsive Foundation website, the most up to date and reliable info on OCD in the world.

http://www.ocfoundation.org/medsummary.aspx

[raven381]

hi carol again, i dont really know what therapuetic level is , is paxil's dosage the same with seroxat dosage ?

yes ofcourse i have been to the psychiatrist for like 4-5 times during this whole 9 years, and to a psychologist for like 10 times.

the psychiatrist from the beginning recommended seroxat 20 mg, i begin 5 mg  for a week then jump to 10mg in the following week, then 20 mg for 5-6-7 or even a year, then i withdraw gradually , i have been on this dosage form for about 9 years, on and off. this is how my psychiatrist recommended !

do you think its wrong ?

and please can you explain what is this therapeutic level ? should i be going into this ? is that a healing issue !?

thank you for your time, since here in Lebanon , the government dont give a **** and there are no community and even the doctors doesnt explain well and give us the proper time, they just give us the temporary solution .

Regards    

[raven381]

ok THanks

[57Carol]

And ask your dr. about trying a therapuetic level of Paxil since you apparently haven't yet, so no wonder you worry if it isn't helping. And it goes without saying that you must take the full dosages and not just off and on for it to have a positive effect.

[JGF25]

I have had a couple people post on the forum who tried inositol and 5-htp without much success.  Again, everybody is different but you really should follow Carol's advice and talk to your doctor.  

[57Carol]

According to research, the appropriate therapuetic level for Paxil is 40 to 60 mg, so you are not on that. Who is prescribing for you, a family doc or a psychiatrist? There is a very small amount of resarch on inostil, but nothing really firmed up yet. You need to talk to your dr. and you need to resume therapy, is what I suggest.

[raven381]

i have read about Inositol powder and 5-htp . they can play a role in producing serotonin and increase serotonin level.

i have once made a CBT  years ago, it helped a bit but for a little while only, i have also been taking Seroxat 20mg for about 9 years on and off, so you can say 4.5 years on a row .

what do you think ?

[raven381]

ok thanks you

[57Carol]

One word: NO.

There have been no nutritional supplements or other types of non prescribed medical therapies that have been proved to have helped with OCD. Are you having therapy, Exposure/Response prevention? That is the only evidence based treatment known to reduce symptoms of OCD, often coupled with prescribed meds.

[JGF25]

See my other comment to your other post.  Not sure why you are looking for non-medicine supplement for OCD.  Answer on the other post so that we only have one post going.  Thanks.