Posted by John 16's Mom on May 21, 2002:
In Reply to: Re: To Julianne, Ligeia, Maddmaxx posted by sue on May 21, 2002:
There is no "cure" at all for OCD. It can come back at anytime. Stress has been shown to exacerbate the OCD symptoms. Medication helps many people to a point of very close to cured. My son has benefited greatly from medication, in addition to his understanding of how OCD works. Most books, articles, and comments by OCD experts attribute the illness to a chemical imbalance. That is what I am basing my comments upon. Depression has also been linked to the same cause. It is still being researched further, but for now, that is the general belief. SSRI's have been proven effective in combating this illness, especially when the anxiety is so high that one cannot function in everyday life and may be to the point of suicide, which is the case for a couple of the people to whom I wrote. My son was non-functioning when he began on medication. It has worked wonders for him.
I realize that all people have varying degrees of success with medication and therapy. But when someone asks for help, I try to steer them in the direction of the two known treatments for OCD that have been proven successful, medication and therapy. Therapy can be a long-term treatment over many months. Medication can take anywhere from three weeks (in my son's case) to twelve weeks to help curb the OCD symptoms. In my opinion, that is a much quicker result.
Of course, the patient's doctor has to ultimately decide which method of treatment is best suited based on the whole case. We are only here to offer opinions and advice. The main advice that I can stress is to DO SOMETHING. An action, even if it turns out to be unsuccessful, is better than no action at all. Thank you for listening.