INTRUSIVE THOUGHTS?

[tj21]

Agree re. CBT (and some do exposure therapy, or similar, as well)! We had a great therapist but then she moved to Vancouver.

She was able to work w/ds15's cognitive disabilities, which many child CBTs here aren't experienced with.

[Aerose91]

Hi Trinity,

 

I'd like to add my .02 here as I'm an adult (30) who has had intrusive thoughts, OCD and anxiety to extreme levels. I had it from ativan withdrawal- I was put on benzos for 2 weeks to counter thyroid medication and then cold turkey'd off. I spun into the 7th circle of and the damage from the benzos is what led me into encephalopathy and AI issues, etc.

 

First off, I want to say that I feel very sympathetic for your daughter. The intrusive thoughts and OCD tend to go hand in hand a lot of times and they are awful, purely awful. There were times when I would be. ruled up in a ball in my room for days on end because I couldn't get it to stop so she really is a trooper.

 

From my knowledge of this it's that OCD, intrusive thoughts and many other things are all symptoms or variations of anxiety and this is usually caused by an excess of glutamate. I'm not a huge proponent of heavy psych meds, especially ones that can change a person's brain chemistry (benzos) while your daughter is still young. The thing that worked best for me to take the edge off a little, if even slightly was l-Theanine. Its very safe and is a precursor to GABA in your brain. I have also seen people have some success with SSRIs, especially since I believe they are easier and safer to come off of in the future.

 

The one thing you can't avoid with this topic is benzos. I will say this- they are definitely effective but there's a reason they are designed to not be used for more than 2 weeks at a time, ever. They're a once in a while, as needed for o occasional acute anxiety pill. Also, klonopin and valium are typically safer than xanax and ativan as they have a much longer half life. Xanax is very fast acting but can give nasty rebound effects the next day.

 

I really hope your daughter has resolution to this soon and it's commendable that you are being understanding and trying to find solutions for her. I'm not sure if any of this helped but I thought it may help to hear an adults perspective on going through the same thing. Best of luck to you guys.

[dcmom]

Aerose

 

Thanks for your insight!

 

I have two pandas girls- teen and preteen.

 

We have found that the combination of immune therapy, ERP therapy, and time, to be the key factors in recovery.

 

Prozac has been very useful at extremely low dose to lift and stabilize mood. Even at higher doses it did not help ocd.

 

Older dd tried Xanax. Was not particularly helpful- and thank u for adding rebound effect- as we would see that abt 6 hours later. Took us a few times to realize.

[Aerose91]

Dcmom-

 

Prozac is used pretty frequently for stabilizing mood, they even gave it to me when I first got encephalopathy because they thought I was psychiatric. It did stabilize me slightly but not much, as an infection was my problem. It would make sense that it wouldn't do much for ocd and obsessive thoughts as those are anxiety based and Prozac doesn't touch the GABA/glutamate balance. However, it was pretty unceremonious when I tapered off it which was a huge victory considering how sensitive I am to medications. So overall, Prozac seemed pretty safe.

 

I really hope the best for your daughters as this condition is pretty brutal, and obsessive thoughts are awful. I hope she finds a solution soon

Edited April 12, 2015 by Aerose91