Medication for OCD, 5HTP, SSRIS

Hi All,

I was wondering what your experiences are with medication for OCD. I mostly suffer from obsessions and constant mental ruminations that have taken on a vicious form over the last month. I do have compulsions but they are not nearly as debilitating as the mental rituals and obsessions. I have just begun to see a psychologist and he suggested that I begin medication but I feel it is way too soon and I want to see where the therapy takes me first. I have tried 5HTP and have had a degree of success with it especially when I feel completely overwhelmed with anxiety. I have just started a consistent regimen with it and I have lowered my dosage as I feel I began way too high. Although the 5HTP and other vitamins I take have shown some success the effect seems to be more short-term and does not get rid of a lot of the problems I am suffering from. Nevertheless, I still want to give time for my herbal regimen to take full-effect and to see how therapy helps me before I take any SSRIS as I see there are some nasty side effects that people have suffered and at times they don't even seem to work the way they should.

Does anyone have any experience with either herbal or conventional medicine here? How have they helped or not?

Thanks, any advice would be greatly appreciated.

Zoloft was extremely effective for me. I still needed therapy to help me quit the rituals, but more weren't beginning. It came with a lot of side effects though, but I was desperate for relief by that point.

Thanks for your insight , Did you feel it helped with obsessive thinking as well? It would be nice to get rid of the physical compulsions as well but my main concern is my thinking for the moment. I have been trapped in this vicious cycle of negative thinking about myself for the past month and at times I completely loose faith in it ever going away.