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Ask HN: Have OCD, suffering from extreme procrastination, please help?

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Ask HN: Have OCD, suffering from extreme procrastination, please help?

#1
I am a web developer, I am also suffering from OCD for years, was depressed for while after the initial diagnosis of OCD which was years ago. I take 60mg of Fluxetine daily and Quetiapine at night to help with sleep.

May be I also have ADHD, since sometime I get really excited about things and do things energetically, but sometime I get pretty down. I also prefer work on only things I care about or interested in. My mind get flooded with thoughts most of the time.

After finishing college I was working on projects, but I was not able to finish any of my projects. I sometime gather courage to work for a while but fall of the wagon after a week or so. In recent months I have not done anything useful keep procrastinating on things. Over the years my obsessive thoughts have evolved with the age, these days I mostly battle with ethical, legal obsessive thoughts, while I can control the response to these thoughts with meds. I seem to have complex obsessive thought which revolves around perfectionism, where I plan things and work for week then procrastinate, replan then work for while then procrastinate and so on. But last recent days I have lost the energy and have not done useful work, keep procrastinating.

Note : As the procrastinating I do household work, work in the garden, help family members and relations, check email Reddit, HN, watch TV where any of the things are not urgent. (I also seem to have addiction to information since I regularly check HN, Reddit, PH, RSS reader.)

My mother have Parkinson, her condition also deteriorating slowly. Father also have health issues. I am the eldest son of the family, my mother constantly worries about me and my brothers future. We recently showed my mother to psychiatrist where he said my mom is depressed, this probably due since she worries about me and my brother, since she have strong bond towards us due to past unfortunate events with my elder brothers. (My brother does not have any psychological disorder) Even with enough stress I keep procrastinating. I have to get this projects done and make my parents happy before it is too late.

So please any advice would be highly appreciated?

By the way I am from South Asian country where doctors (in my case psychiatrists) are expensive when you made a private booking, they just ask some questions give some meds and take the money without taking things seriously, sometimes does not even take ten minutes which was my experience. Even in the public hospital they pay less attention to me. There are good doctors who are caring but they are really rare which I had at the very beginning after my diagnosis of the OCD, when I was suffering from depression.

Re: Ask HN: Have OCD, suffering from extreme procrastination, please help?

#4
First of all, this is not the place for health advice. None of us here are qualified in Psychiatry and Psychology. Please seek medical attention. I don't know which South Asian country you live in but you must seek help for your condition. Maybe therapy and medication would be necessary. Please take care of yourself and seek professional help. Take care.

Re: Ask HN: Have OCD, suffering from extreme procrastination, please help?

#5
I wish I could help you friend but I suffer from similar struggles, only to a lesser extent. I'm currently in therapy but honestly it helps very little. Understanding myself is not helping in any way towards change. Also tried Cognitive Behavioral Therapy, worked better up to a point but tapered off, no lasting change.

I hope you find a way to break out of that rut, I'm thankfully in a position that procrastination doesn't affect my life that badly (I still do my job just fine, it's other areas that are suffering).

Re: Ask HN: Have OCD, suffering from extreme procrastination, please help?

#8
I recommend a very high fat ketogenic diet, and a few supplements especially magnesium and inositol. These are highly proven both scientifically and anectodally. There is much more to discuss about this, and I'd be glad to assist you by mail (see profile), but in short these help calm down an overexcitable brain (ketogenic diets have been used for epilepsy since the 19th century). This will also lower inflammation, with this start exercising, go outside, sleep well.

Then you can work with other modalities if needed, but fix the hardware first.

Re: Ask HN: Have OCD, suffering from extreme procrastination, please help?

#9
I don't have much specific advice though I have ADHD the other branch of the mental health family to OCD. It sounds corny but a psych doing self-help advice but from a perspective of explaining the science behind current and cutting edge psych has helped me greatly

Dr. K a Harvard psych on gaming addiction and online communities has a youtube channel explaining how coaching. This isn't a replacement for therapy however his explanations of the science and walking through these ideas as a coach on how to apply these yourself. From my exp has very healthy approaches for just feeling less judgmental towards yourself, so you can get out of your own way and just get things done

Of course a psych will be better however this in my opinion is like fun workshops for myself to understand myself and others. So this might be a great starting point before putting money into a psych/therapist, like starting calory counting and walking more before getting a personal trainer.

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