I tried Prozac but it didn’t help a lot and I found my gf so I didn’t want the sexual side effects, then after a lot of anxiety tried Lyrica and it worked decently for a bit less than a year but I think that now it doesn’t help that much (either because my circumstances are more anxiety inducing in general or because of tolerance).

There aren’t that many CBT therapists in my country either let alone ERP specialists (most are talk therapists or psychoanalysts). I’m not sure how much it would help anyways because I mainly have mental obsessions which might are more difficult to prevent.

What did you do in a similar position? Did you manage to find some semblance of inner peace? Thanks for your time

  • ReadFanon [any, any]@hexbear.netEnglish
    4·
    1 year ago

    Gabapentinoids like Lyrica have been my only real saviors, but the tolerance climbs way too fast to be useful long term, and the withdrawal is the literal worst withdrawal I’ve ever been through

    I haven’t looked into psychopharmacology relating to OCD but if gabapentinoids work then you might consider trying out memantine/amantadine. Obviously they work on different receptors however memantine/amantadine might hit a similar note that a gabapentinoid does. Both memantine and amantadine have pretty minimal side effect profiles in comparison to psychiatric meds like antidepressants.

    • LeylaLove [she/her, love/loves]@hexbear.netEnglish
      2·
      1 year ago

      I am interested in memantine, just worried about ever going through withdrawal again. NMDA action (cough syrup, ketamine, memantine ect.) have all treated me pretty well when I’ve done them. DXM as a short term SSRI actually works alright imo.

      How does memantine make you feel?

      • ReadFanon [any, any]@hexbear.netEnglish
        1·
        1 year ago

        I haven’t tried memantine before but it’s very similar to amantadine, which I do take.

        I’ve heard one anecdotal report that memantine’s effect is stronger than amantadine but idk the truth of that.

        Amantadine is an anticholinergic but it’s very mild in this respect compared to the anticholinergic effects that you get from antipsychotics.

        I take amantadine to hit a few different birds with one stone: I have ADHD and I’m really sensitive to the side effects of norepinephrinergic meds (think Adderall, Vyvanse) and amantadine increases dopamine release and blocks reuptake so it works well as an adjunct ADHD med for me. I suffer from pretty crippling depression and the NMDA antagonist effect is definitely welcome. Last of all there’s the obvious anxiety that goes along with the depression and the sensitivity to norepinephrinergic meds and amantadine works well to mitigate these two related factors.

        It’s a little bit hard to determine what memantine would feel like for a non-ADHDer but I would say that it’s anxiolytic effects would still be the major effect, so if it works it should feel reduce your anxiety noticeably.

        (I’ve only ever had temazepam during serious mental health crises so I can’t really compare the effect to benzodiazepines anecdotally, unfortunately.)