Off meds, and fearing that I am in a state of mental decline

curiousmind · Newbie User Joined: May 03, 2008 Posts: 1

Please help me with this or share your experiences. I need to know what is going on with me. I am 19 years old. I was on various medications (prozac, paxil, zoloft, some chlomipramine, etc) for OCD/anxiety/depression for about 5 years and have been completely off of all medications for over a year now. And I feel like I am losing my mental faculties. My processing speed is slow, I cannot quickly follow conversations. Songs are stuck in my head for nearly all of my waking hours (and I sometimes wake up with songs stuck in my head). I cannot always focus very well because of mental static, like a broken circuit in my brain. I am very absent minded and not aware of what I'm doing (like for example, I will mean to take one thing out of the refrigerator, and not even realize that I am taking something else out instead). I have extremely bad short term memory (like if someone says something I may have trouble repeating it back.)

Now I blame myself for some of this, because I feel like I have gotten to the point where I am so withdrawn and self absorbed that do not notice anything around me, and obsessive thoughts have dulled my mind and become my whole world.

At the same time, I'm not sure what to do about it what has now become an automatic brain state. And I wonder: my brain was never quite this bad before I took the meds, or was it only a matter of time before it became this way, since OCD is said to get worse over time? Or have medications damaged my young developing brain in some way, so that now it's become permanently messed up without them? Please help, this is very disturbing to me and I need to know. And maybe I should also note that I have a learning disability regarding information processing and short term memory, but I never noticed it to be this bad before now.

Comments would be very gratefully recieved.

TAMPA-BAY · Posted: Sat May 03, 2008 7:24 am Post subject: hi

Hi your problems sound perfectly normal to me. I am actualy supprised that you didnt mentioned anything about withdrawal symptons. Most people who I have talked to that used meds say they are unable to get off of them.

starfruit212 · Newbie User Joined: May 06, 2008 Posts: 6

That sounds an awful lot like me when I first started medication for my OCD. I could never remember what was going on and was very fuzzy and confused. Total and complete lack of short term memory.
I think that this is probably just the normal way that your body is dealing with the changes in the levels of its chemicals. Everyone has different symptoms when getting off the meds and it just sounds like those are yours. You'll be alright: Just give it some time. :)