OCD and a new daily ritual to manage

I told my GP later than I should have. Please do not do what I did. The conversation was much easier than the four months of not having it.

What I would say is that a change in mood is worth reporting even if you cannot attribute it, and especially if you cannot attribute it.

I had a difficult autumn that had nothing to do with any of this, and disentangling that was most of the work of my second year.

Picking up Abram’s point rather than starting a new one.

My other medication needed reviewing and a pharmacist spotted something two doctors had not. Do have the interactions conversation properly.

The routine came apart first for me and the mood followed, and my therapist thought that order was informative rather than incidental.

I would say plainly that if things have got dark, this is a thread to leave and a person to ring. We are company and we are not the right help for that.

The hardest part was that I felt I should be pleased and I was not, and the gap between those two things was itself distressing.

My therapist was more useful to me on this than any prescriber, because the question was not really a medication question in my case.

What I did not expect was how much of my mood had been tied to a constant background effort, and how odd it felt when that effort stopped.

My GP asked me to come back in two weeks rather than leaving it, and that follow-up was the thing that actually made a difference.

What I found was that being honest here was a rehearsal for being honest at my appointment, and the rehearsal genuinely helped.

I want to say clearly that my mental health has been better rather than worse across two years, because the difficult accounts are the ones that get written.

Leif, thank you for that. It gives me somewhere to start from.

My prescriber asked directly about mood at every review, which I found intrusive at first and was extremely glad of later.

What helped was telling one person honestly rather than four people partially. The partial versions were exhausting and got me nothing.

The thing I would flag is anhedonia specifically. Low mood gets asked about; not enjoying anything is a different report and worth naming.

I had to accept that some of this was seasonal and would have happened regardless, and that acceptance stopped me looking for a cause that was not there.