Postnatal Anxiety, OCD and Depression

[Lana Faye]

On 25.01.2023 at 11:36 PM, integral said:

Are you exercising at a gym to relieve stress? 

Yes but that did not help much.

[LSD-Rumi]

On 1/25/2023 at 9:27 AM, Leo Gura said:

I'm no expert on them. I suppose some people need them, but they are def not good for you. It's just a question of, are they holding back something worse? If you are very mentally unstable then perhaps they are good for you. But I would never want a functional person taking them. Most people report feeling numb on them and not themselves. Which is why Kanye doesn't take his meds. But that didn't work out so well for him lately. So maybe he should take them before he destroys his life.

Have you considered psychedelic therapy? Ketamine, etc?

@Lana Faye This is totally wrong actually. You cannot escape a severe mental illness without proper medication. I tried it for years and I failed. What worked for me recently is high dosage multidrug appraoch and it feels much better. I tried Psychedelics and they were a waste of my time. You just have a nightmare trip when you are mentally ill. 

[Lana Faye]

45 minutes ago, LSD-Rumi said:

@Lana Faye This is totally wrong actually. You cannot escape a severe mental illness without proper medication. I tried it for years and I failed. What worked for me recently is high dosage multidrug appraoch and it feels much better. I tried Psychedelics and they were a waste of my time. You just have a nightmare trip when you are mentally ill. 

Antidepressants messed up with my brain a LOT! I feel much better without the medication and my OCD is gone as I allowed my mind to imagine anything it wanted without judgement. Perhaps in your case you needed the meds. Everyone’s case is different. I myself am afraid to try psychedelics though since I’m not mentally stable. 

[LSD-Rumi]

@Lana Faye

On 2/2/2023 at 10:30 PM, Lana Faye said:

Antidepressants messed up with my brain a LOT! I feel much better without the medication and my OCD is gone as I allowed my mind to imagine anything it wanted without judgement. Perhaps in your case you needed the meds. Everyone’s case is different. I myself am afraid to try psychedelics though since I’m not mentally stable. 

Interesting. For me If I don't take my medication, my OCD runs wild on me.

Can you update us on your state now, I hope you are doing better.

[Lana Faye]

On 22.02.2023 at 0:29 PM, LSD-Rumi said:

@Lana Faye

Interesting. For me If I don't take my medication, my OCD runs wild on me.

Can you update us on your state now, I hope you are doing better.

OCD runs wild in the morning and afternoon and I occasionally slip into depressive mode but I feel better without antidepressants. Doing psychotherapy, too…lots of shit to go through. I’ve read you are doing great in your recent post  happy for you! 

[LSD-Rumi]

19 minutes ago, Lana Faye said:

OCD runs wild in the morning and afternoon and I occasionally slip into depressive mode but I feel better without antidepressants. Doing psychotherapy, too…lots of shit to go through. I’ve read you are doing great in your recent post  happy for you! 

No, don't just dismiss the idea of medications. You must try at least a couple of different medications before reaching this conclusion. For me, I din't respond to SSRIs and lost hope, but later on I tried another combination of drugs and it was the difference between day and night. Just search for a good psychatris and he/she will know what to do.

Also, there are some supplements that are great for ocd, I tried them personally and they great.

• NAC, this one is very strong, a dose of it and the mind gets silent. Just take in it  in pills, it is so sour
• inositol, it is some kind of sugar that has a good effect on OCD
• magenisum theornate, zinc and copper, omega 3 and vitamine D are essential
• you can also ask for a benzodiazibne drug for this difficult period 
• also, my doctor prescribed me a mood stabilizer called lamotrigine, it works instantly and it is amazing

don't lose hope. it is well know that medications are very effective for ocd and more essential than cbt

[Lana Faye]

@LSD-Rumi Thanks! I’ll look into those. May I ask what kind of OCD do you have? Around which themes? Is it Pure O or you have compulsions, too? 

[LSD-Rumi]

17 minutes ago, Lana Faye said:

@LSD-Rumi Thanks! I’ll look into those. May I ask what kind of OCD do you have? Around which themes? Is it Pure O or you have compulsions, too? 

Pure o.  Listen I can give you a call if you want, I m free these days, it can be very helpful.

[Lana Faye]

UPDATE: the only method that has really worked for me to deal with pure O is the Greymond Method, which is all about putting yourself „on a diet“ aka reducing rumination, talking about your fears, confessing, googling stuff, reading other people’s stories on the forums, and analysing thoughts. And of course, doing classic ERP on a daily if not hourly basis. It has been the most painful 1,5 months of my life but no amount of pills, psychotherapy, inner child work, shadow work, self acceptance, and similar stuff helped as much as Ali Greymond, who deeply understands OCD because she has struggled with it herself, fully recovered, and has been helping people for over 15 years. I cannot say I‘ve completely healed my mind but I have reduced anxiety to 0 and the scary/weird thoughts do not bother me anymore. It’s still a long path ahead and I must work on the underlying sensitivity to prevent relapse but at least the road is clear now. 

[PurpleTree]

On 25.1.2023 at 1:36 PM, Lana Faye said:

I I was extremely anxious trying to find an answer why I had these pictures of me killing my son. 

sorry to hear that ?

i also have some of these ocd thoughts sometimes.

i think it‘s similar as with tourette syndrome, these people don‘t want to offend anyone but then they blurt the worst things out.

it‘s similar to „don‘t think of a pink elephant“

 

[PurpleTree]

On 14.5.2023 at 4:16 AM, Lana Faye said:

UPDATE: the only method that has really worked for me to deal with pure O is the Greymond Method, which is all about putting yourself „on a diet“ aka reducing rumination, talking about your fears, confessing, googling stuff, reading other people’s stories on the forums, and analysing thoughts. And of course, doing classic ERP on a daily if not hourly basis. It has been the most painful 1,5 months of my life but no amount of pills, psychotherapy, inner child work, shadow work, self acceptance, and similar stuff helped as much as Ali Greymond, who deeply understands OCD because she has struggled with it herself, fully recovered, and has been helping people for over 15 years. I cannot say I‘ve completely healed my mind but I have reduced anxiety to 0 and the scary/weird thoughts do not bother me anymore. It’s still a long path ahead and I must work on the underlying sensitivity to prevent relapse but at least the road is clear now. 

Oh read that post later, glad you‘re feeling better ?

[Federico del pueblo]

@Lana Faye I want to add a somewhat more controversial view here, just in case nothing else helps you might want to contemplate whether this stuff could be relevant:

If you study the work of Stanislav Grof (a psychiatrist and the "godfather of LSD therapy") you will learn that the process of giving birth can potentially bring up the emotions and sensations you felt during your own birth (which is a type of trauma that virtually everybody has according to Grof, it just won't necessarily create obvious problems later in life because it is repressed and thus unconscious).

If you're interested check out what ChatGpt says in the added screenshots:

[Schizophonia]

Are you manic or depressed? both (bipolar?) How do you react to pure dopaminergics? (cabergoline, metergoline, bupropion, nicotine...), I have difficulties to understand.

Have you tried or thought about trying progesterone? it has a euphoric AND calming effect on the brain (by increasing gaba signaling).

Edited May 16, 2023 by Schizophonia

[Lana Faye]

@Federico del pueblo thanks! It is not that. But the theory sounds valid although quite controversial. In my case it’s fear…too many fears. I was afraid I could lose consciousness while giving birth and he’ll get stuck and I’d kill him. His heart rate was dropping so I got scared. It’s mostly PTSD that transferred into OCD because I was misdiagnosed with postnatal depression which I made worse myself by overthinking and trying to run away from anxiety. Now everything is fine. But took me 8 months. 

[Lana Faye]

@Schizophonia hi there! No, I don’t have any of these. Regarding the meds you mentioned, haven’t tried them and not planning to. I assume I’m way too sensitive for them considering how my body and brain reacted to antipsychotic and antidepressants. I’m fine with the blend of St. Johns Wort, passion flower, balderian and vitamin B6 which I take in the morning and Ashwagandha before sleep. Works best for me. No side effects whatsoever. Ah, magnesium also helped. 

[integral]

22 minutes ago, Lana Faye said:

Ashwagandha before sleep

How long have you been taking Ashwangandha for sleep? Where you also taking it while pregnant and breast feeding? 

Edited May 30, 2023 by integral

[LSD-Rumi]

@Lana Faye 

hey 

NAC and Inositol worked best for me.

I hope you are doing better.

[Lana Faye]

@integral

I did not take anything but vitamins during pregnancy. It’s postnatal period that hit me hard. I took Ashwagandha for 2 months. Worked great in terms of reducing anxiety. When I started Ali’s OCD recovery program, the first step was very hard and my brain would send me literally anything to get me into fear - during that period I took Ashwagandha in the morning too since it was the worst time of the day. 
 

As for breastfeeding, I wasn’t doing it at that time. Antidepressants ruined my chance for breastfeeding, unfortunately. And I wasn’t taking St John’s and Ashwagandha while I was on antidepressants.

Edited May 30, 2023 by Lana Faye
Edition

[Lana Faye]

@LSD-Rumi hey there! MUCH better!!! Although NAC and Inositol didn’t help me. Hope you are also fine ?

[Lana Faye]

Important note on St John’s and Ashwagandha - they won’t magically remove OCD, that’s your job to retrain your brain. OCD thoughts are not the problem, however the reaction to the thoughts is. I still get OCD thoughts occasionally but I’ve learnt to disregard and continue with my day. In my case, the aforementioned herbs help to reduce anxiety and feel a bit uplifted.

Edited May 30, 2023 by Lana Faye