Posted by snapper on March 30, 2004, at 0:07:32
In reply to Biochemistry of OCD and anxiety. What's broken?, posted by jerimycoplo on March 29, 2004, at 22:01:16
longish!! Hi jc, man oh man this is the big mystery!!!
dude I feel so bad for you and others who are having these difficulties... I don't have the specific answers but I will tell you this - I know for fact that it is an OBSESSION In itself trying to figure it out... You are just like me , I am convinced (or at least I have convinced myself ) that this deal is primarily 'chemical' -- you are right it is chemical- but it just is'nt this chemical or that chemical ... I believe it is a really goofy dsyregulation of many chemicals....Here is a little theory>>> i'll try not to be to complicated about explaining this..but here goes...keep in mind just some self observed theory....ok? ---Seratonin is purportedley the calm , everything is just fine I am cool with it kind of deal - neurotransmitter and Dopamine is the the ultimate feel good I love life-pleasure,
I fit in, I feel good , and perhaps too good kind of neurotransmitter . it as well as serotonin are both inexplicably connected to produce feelings of happiness-sadness-pleasure-euphoria-sexual fellings-rage- anger-compulsions etc. I hope I am making some sense. I know it does not make sense that the chemical dopamine is what we need to feel happy , social, un-afraid, exuberant, and so forth and that ssri's are what they (Dr.'s) use to control or attempt to control symptoms af seriuos anxiety , panic and ,ocd (increase) in seratonin to help stop obsessions and compulsions. I know it just really seems screwed up. But heres the deal.... I first noticed my ocd at the age of eight-I was an outgoing litte guy full of life,loved everybody etc...pretty much life was good.!! Ok so as my life progresses and life stressors create some kind of influx of these chemicals I get very stressed ( for reasons I won't elaborate on here)I don't know what is happening and my body stops creating these 'feel good chemicals' cortisol (stress hormones) goes through the roof.... creates vicious cycle stress begats stress and so on thus depleting more feel good chemicals thus creating an over load of bad chemicals verse good chemicals...please try to hang in here with me and I am sorry to others if this is so long (if you are even reading it) back to when I was 8.. I had all kinds of worries and anxious feelings about stuff, stupid stuff in general, but very real and scary to me ( little kid ) I thought I was going to die , I thought I was not going to go to heaven because I did'nt pray to Jesus the right way or the correct way-- had all kinds of fears- it was really crappy - any how my folks sent me to a psychologist to see why I was such a worried little guy! they never really figured out why I had so many worries and fears but the psychologist created a deal where I made a little thing out of clay and called it my worry wart and when I began to needlessly worry or be fearful I would just say 'here to my worry wart' take my worries away and it seemed to allay my fears and worries that in itself was the compulsion that helped satisfy myself from worrying this period of my life seemed to pass...........jump forward several years..OCD and social anxiety can wax and wane -come and go-
if you will. Anyhow as I got older, I found out that self medicating with alcohol seemed to dampen my anxieties and fears of scrutiny by others-'works for a while until you start to have to drink more and more to control your anxiety and what not. Alcohol is a depressant but it also releases dopamine...the hey everything feels good and ok -I love life chemical. Too bad that it is not the cure!!
The deal is that a large number if not all people
who have addictions like, drinking, gambling, using illicit drugs, smoking, sexual addictions etc seem to have too little Dopamine in their heads and the fact that you just gotta keep doing something or having that beer or placing another bet on the blackjack table or what ever it is, smoking etc. is in my opinion a depletion of dopamine thats why we remain repetitive in our thoughts and actions.. still with me? ok we don't know why the opiates make us feel so good and why people like us feel inhibited in social situations-the mere fact is that we just seem to freeze and that Pleasure chemical is just like it's underactive.. I am not a scientist but I am determined to find out why this is--like i said before some of it is chemical and some of it is psycho-social, such as ,were you shy as a kid or felt insecure about your looks or your body type etc. there are jsut soooo many factors that go into play with this thing... The obvious thing would be to say hey ,, lets get more dopamine, so we enjoy things and take more pleasure in things but it's just not that simple. I am not saying that everybody that has an issue wtih an addiction has social anxiety or OCD, however I would very much venture to say that a large majority of people out there that are self medicating with cigarettes, dope, weed, sex, gambling or what ever it may be, that they are all just trying to raise thier dopamine levels.
i am looking for answers for my depression and anxieties and my ocd and have realized that it can only be corrected to a certain degree with psychiatric drugs.. They cover up the symptoms in stead of treating the root cause... there are many different etioligies for dep. anxiety and ocd and every one experiences all of these SYMPTOMS to varying degrees and different intensities.. soooo I will try to quit babbling and give you some advice fwiw- I have discovered a website on the internet that was a rare find in my opinion... it is called ocdfree.xxx I have contacted this very nice lady in the east coast and she told me that SHE USED TO (used to) have panic , anxiety, and ocd -so bad that she could'nt even leave her house for 6 monthsshe claims she is now symptom free after 8 or 9 years -- no her life is not perfect but she has most of her health back and certainly her mental health-she has told me that she has consulted with hunreds and possibly thousnads of people w/ocd and and that the key to correcting the ocd part of this whole bio-chemical mess was this: to nourish the myelin sheathing in the brain - I know this sounds really cookoo and way out but she is a naturopathic Dr. and is living proof that there are alternative treatments to the problems we face ...I am getting ready to start her protocol in a couple of weeks and she has told me that the results will definitley not be overnight but that those who follow the protocol she reccomends, become 80-85 symptom free and some become symptom free altogether of the effects of ocd and panic.She told me that if it was going to be effective to be effective that it would be a min of 2-3 months to see results and that I would need to continue the nutrient and herbal protocol for at least 9-12 months in order to rebuild my myelin sheathing I talked to this lady for over 21/2 hour the other night...very informed and very nice lady. this thread might get re-directed to alternative treatments board but thats ok . I know that a lot of people on this board are going to think I am nuts-but I am definitely NOT INTO QUACKERY AND WILL TRY WHAT EVER I CAN TO FEEL BETTER AND HEALTHY AGAIN. HER PROTOCOL DOES NOT CLAIM TO CURE DEPRESSION AND SEVERE ANXIETIES BUT I FIGURE ANYTHING THAT CAN HELP ME I WELCOME IT.. BECAUSE I AM MISERABLE AND SICK AND TIRED OF BEING SICK AND TIRED! jc or others, if you want the exact web site to check out her story I will be happy to pass it on since i have not begun the protocol I can't say weather it will help me or not but it sure cant hurt!! hey everyone thinks for letting me ramble and babble and i am sorry for the dis-jointed speach and possible repetition of my post but I think most of you can probably relate- when your ol brain is not working right it just is not working right... hope this post or parts of it give some people some hope! also I want everone to know that I am not trying to sell anything or help promote her stuff she readily admits that she is here to help people weather or not they buy products from her or not!! I BELIEVE SHE IS SINCERE-- AND I AM A SKEPTIC ALTHOUGH - AN OPTOMISTIC SKEPTIC -JUST SHOW ME PROOF THAT IT WILL WORK FOR ME AND I'LL THEN BELIEVE!!
my best to all my fellow sufferers
Snapper
poster:snapper
thread:330123
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20040329/msgs/330180.html