Tyler01Senior Contributor
OCD staring / eye contact / peripheral vision
Hi there
This is my first post . I'll try and make it brief.
I've had OCD for 30 years now and it involves constant visual distractions. I am always trying NOT to look at inappropriate (private) parts when talking to people and also my peripheral vison (eyes flicking back and forward) with people in the corner of my vision.
The peripheral vision problem may involve being distracted by people whenever they come into my field of view e.g at a cafe I must either face a wall where I can't see anybody or put an arm up to shield my eyes.
I remember the exact day in school (year 9) I was sitting in Geography class watching a documentary on the television and casually glanced at the crutch of the guy sitting to the right of me. I thought in my head that 'you can't look there!' and ever since that moment my staring/peripheral vision OCD has made life a struggle ever since.
As far as therapies are concerned , you name it and I have defintiely tried it, from psychiatrists to spiritual healers and all of the medications that that you can poke a stick at.
I had a break from traditional treatments for quite a number of years and tried the natural healing side of things, with the occasional visit to my GP for SRI scripts. At one stage I was borderline ready to give up on living entirely.
As a last resort I decided to reconnect with my psychiatrist to see if anything new regarding treatments had popped up. He told me there were not alot of options apart from the usual SRI medications .
Almost as an aside he mentioned that ADHD was closely related to OCD and that there can often be a combination of the two.
He told me there have been some success stories with the use of PRESCIBED STIMULANTS for some types of OCD. I was asked if I wanted to give it a try and after thinking about it for half a second I said 'yes'.
The following day I popped the new medication into my mouth and had my early morning walk with the dogs.
Roughly an hour later I noticed something I hadn't felt in 30 years.
Another dog walker was approaching and usually I would have strolled in the other direction as the thoughts and anxiety would overwhelm me.
But something had changed. It was as if an intencity volume switch had been turned down inside my head. I was able to make much better eye contact and felt a new internal confidence .
The level of intencity with the OCD thoughts had diminished quite a bit.
I have continued taking dthe stimulants everyday (morning and lunchtimes) ,I do not feel like I am on any medications at all, (not like some I have had in the past)
The new STIMULANT has helped my OCD more than any other medication.
I would say that the improvement is 50 to 60 % better, life is easier then it has been for many years.
I guess you could say the stimulant helps with the less intense OCD inducing environments ie going to the shops, walking in the park and general day to day engagements involving people.
Just thought I'd better let eveybody out there who suffers from a similar form of OCD that this new treatment helps me a lot and maybe it can help them also. I could not mention the name of the medication directly as per the rules of this forum.
Thanks and good luck
