OCD or Anxiety?

[DC24]

Hello, I am very new to this community. I posted my personal story earlier and I assume you all can access that. Now, I have this obssive worry about whether I will ever think normally again or not. I really am doubting that I will. Is this OCD or anxiety? And if it is anxiety does that disqualify Pandas? Ps I will be seeing a counselor in a few days and a doctor that has treated pandas soon, but I decided I wanted some of your opinions. Any help would be greatly appreciated. I have been on amoxicillin for a week after I tested positive for strep.

[jan251]

I would put it another way: anxiety and OCD are among the symptoms of PANDAS. The question, then, is whether PANDAS is causing the anxiety and OCD or whether they are ordinary anxiety and OCD where no one bothers to look for a cause.

 

I'd be looking for something stronger than plain amoxicillan, such as augmentin or azithromycin. Good luck with the PANDAS doc.

[WorriedDADNMOM]

DC Watch this vid series. It really helps you understand how and why certain "mental" health issues are more biochemically involved with gut health, immune issue etc... 5-6 part series. Very layman's terms where anyone can get it.

 

 

[MomWithOCDSon]

If you are truly "obsessively" worrying, I would tend to categorize that as OCD, given the "obsessive" part of it. Not to mention, obsessive thinking seems to be a very common manifestation of OCD, particularly for older, adult sufferers as your intellect provides more vulnerable fodder for the OCD beast to exploit.

 

That being said, and OCD manifestation or behavior doesn't rule out PANDAS/PANS. Personally, I'm of the opinion that, 20 years from now, there will be little, if any, distinction between "regular OCD" and PANDAS/PANS or OCD behaviors born of immune dysfunction or other biochemical processes. In other words, I think all the existing "regular OCD" diagnoses that have been handed out willy-nilly over the last couple of decades are probably mis-diagnoses. Or at least a failure on the part of the "experts" to dig into the root cause of the disorder, rather than just label it, medicate it and move on. Such was my son's story.

 

Given your history with strep, I would definitely suspect a bacterial/immune genesis of your disorder. I would pursue all medical avenues, while also availing yourself of the therapeutic resources (CBT/ERP) available to you to help keep the OCD compulsions and obsessions in check as you search for and deal with the medical root of your current concerns.

 

Good luck!