Any success stories with beating OCD and severe anxiety?

I feel your pain…I too suffer from anxiety and my cousin from OCD. It is good you are seeing a psychologist, that will help greatly! As far as anxiety goes I find it helps to do 10 deep breaths when you feel an attack coming on (a lot of times we forget to breath!) and also I have started taking Fish Oil (Omega 3) supplements wich seem to really help me not harp on things. Most people that have OCD and Anxiety have a Seratonin defficiency ehich is a chemical in the brain. When it is low you can have mood swings, feel very anxious, sad and desperate at times. Fish oil has been proven to aid in Seratonin production and that may help too. I haven’t had an attack in almost 2 years now (knock on wood).

Is your HPV the kind where you have symptoms or are you just a carrier? The good news is that they are coming out with a vaccine for women, so it is possible if you find the right girl, she could get vaccinated and then you could have sex safely! I hope you can find some peace, anxiety is so hard to deal with.

Also try Lexapro if the Wellbutrin isn’t helping…I think Wellbutrin is better for quitting cigarettes or alcahol, but I am not a doctor so don’t take my word for it. I used Lexapro and was able to wein myself off of it once my confidence was restored.

So you successfully weened off everything then? I’ll need some sort of benzo if I want to ween off Wellbutrin, since from what I understand, is not possible to cut in half (since the pill technology that allows to be slowly released is in the coating). And I had symptoms and got them taken care of a year ago, but I believe it’ll always be there.

God, what I wouldn’t give to have my confidence back. Hell, I’d even give anything to forget what this anxiety feels like, so its not constantly being recalled whenever I feel better.

I find that caffeine seems to trigger anxiety attacks for me. I found out after having OCD and anxiety attacks for years that my dad has had the same problems, and he told me that he figured this out for himself. Anyway, I don’t know if that’s common, but once I cut caffeine completely from my diet, I almost completely stopped having anxiety attacks.

Yes I was able to ween myself off of the perscription medication. Also not drinking caffeine does help a lot too, pretty much stay away from ANYTHING that will make you jittery. I also found massage therapy to work wonders. I had an attack that last for 5 days and after the massage it went away. Don’t worry, you will eventually be able to find what trigger’s it exactly and stay away from those things and you will feel better again and back to your normal self…just keep thinking positively if you can and tell yourself everthing is going to be okay, because it will be!! I hope I have helped a little I totally feel for you!

Wellbutrin can make anxiety more intense.

I have OCD and GAD and Wellbutrin made it all worse. I ramped down the Wellbutrin and now I’m doing okay on Zoloft. I have Klonapin that I take when an attack happens. It’s highly addictive and not for everyone but it is necessary for me sometimes.

Wellbutrin is not a great idea for OCD. Once, my doctor doubled my Wellbutrin and I became an anxious mess – even more anxious than I was before. Are you seeing a doctor who truly understands the disorder? You probably need Prozac or another SSRI, but ocd people usually need a larger dose of P than do those who are depressed. For more info see www.ocfoundation.org -Best of luck!