hi,

i'm 19, i've had ocd for about three years now and i'm finally trying
to tackle it head on. The thing is i've kind of isolated myself these
past three years, only really hanging out with my brother and seeing
people occaisionally for brief chats. Now that i'm trying to build up
a social network again, i'm finding it hard to have the sharpness and
general humour that i used to. Is it possible for someones personality
to change forever, i mean is it possible to get my old peresonality
back and be who i used to be or am i just stuck with who i am now. any
help is much appreciated, i just feel a bit defeated at the minute.

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Request for Question Clarification by mvguy-ga on 12 Nov 2006 17:44 PST

Are you taking any sort of medication for OCD? That can certainly
affect personality, and sometimes the traits you want can be subdued
along with the ones you don't want.

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Clarification of Question by breakbeatkid-ga on 13 Nov 2006 00:48 PST

i took prozac 20 mg for a year and stopped about 7 months ago.

Have you ever heard of the sayings, "he hasn't been himself, lately";
and "he's his old self again!" -- well, that is exactly what you're
talking about.

Sometimes, life throws some really weird, terrible things at us and
the way we cope with those bad things is by altering our behaviour,
reactions, eating patterns, sleeping patterns, relationships, etc etc.
When things ease up, we go back to our usual behaviour and be
'ourselves' again.

The best advice and reassurance anyone can give you is just relax and
enjoy being with the people in your social network. Don't force it and
don't be worried that you're "out of practice". Soon you'll find that
your personality (and your sharpness and humour) will be more
apparent. You are who you are and you sound as if you're dealing with
all of this in a very mature, honest fashion. Don't pressure yourself
or be worried. Don't feel defeated. Just give yourself some time to
get back in the habit of socialising and chatter/banter etc and before
you even realise it, you'll be your old self again!

I, too, have had tons of "life challenges" thrown at me these past 3 months.

I'm also trying to stay connected to my "true" personality, but
sometimes I find it very hard to do as I still feel "burdened" with
the challenges.

Good luck to you and try to stay positive.

We're all here for a short time, not a long time.

Make the best of it,

Steph53

If you can obtain professional help do so.
Our personality does not "set" until the early 20's.  You may be just
maturing.  OCD is nothing to take lightly.  There are support grups. 
If you want to understand yourself and how OCD can effect personality
and your life try the professional help or support group.

I too have OCD but very mild so no medication. Sometimes it does make
me feel a bit different and I find myself entering and exiting
different personas but then I realize that my parents and friends love
me no matter what and that always seems to straighten things out.

You will be who you become in the future.

It might comfort you to know that most people are either nuts or
stupid, often both.

Probably your recent isolation has 'de-socialized' you, perhaps you
need to find a slightly productive activity that brings you in contact
with people.

Hello, 

First step on any given treatment is accepting you have a problem and
seeking help for it. I believe you are already there, and thats a good
and necessary thing to begin with.

Secondly, it is important to discriminate heavily overused psychiatric
terms, that tend to create lots of confusion.

OCD as you mention it not a personality disorder per se, it is, as
described by normative DSM IV TR (
http://www.behavenet.com/capsules/disorders/o-cd.htm)
 a mental disorder affecting someone life in a given moment, it is
chronical yet temporal and subject to treatment and recovery.

There is also a specific OCD associated with an specific personality
disorder (cluster C personalities, as per DSM
http://www.behavenet.com/capsules/disorders/o-cpd.htm )
This type of OCD associated with a personality disorder has deeper
roots and implies different therapeutical options and outcomes.

It is important for you to find out if you have an OCD alone or an OCD
plus a personality disorder.

Either way OCD can be treated, most common and effective
pharmacological therapy involves the use of SSRI (selective serotonin
reuptake inhibitors) such as Flouxetine (prozac`s drug).
The indicated dose is twice or 3 times or even 4 times (80mg) the
usual 20mg used for depression; thats something very important you ll
have to ask your treating professional about.

20 mg was shown NOT to be effective when treating either kind of OCD.

Check out http://www.ufocd.org/What%20can%20I%20do.htm for easy
reading or try pubmed for the following scientific papers.

J Psychiatr Pract. 2000 May;6(3):113-28 "Biological therapies for
obsessive-compulsive disorder"

J Clin Psychiatry. 1999 Feb;60(2):101-6 "A review of the efficacy of
selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors in obsessive-compulsive
disorder."

Also of proven effectivity for OCD is cognitive behavioural therapy
(psychological help, talking and thinking, not just taking a pill),
check out

http://www.cochrane.org/reviews/en/ab004856.html and once again ask
your doctor about the posibility of undergoing such a therapy.

Personality is considered the result of inherited traits (temperament)
and social/personal life interaction. As they said before me it is
ussualy molded by 20s.

Answering your question, no , you can not lose your personality
forever by controlled use of psicopharmcologic drugs or psycological
therapy.

What you can lose with apropiate treatment are your OCD syntoms, make
them less annyoing, etc.

What you can improve, given the case you have a obessesive personality
is the way that personality affects your daily life in a bad way.

What you have is not something that can be cured "relaxing and not
worrying" it needs proper treatment.

Positive thing is that it does have remissions and cures, but you need
to seek professional consultation ASAP.

This is a hard subject to explain and understand, so any doubts just let me know

I have the same problem. I am in college now, and I have ADD, so I
have to take medication for that. I don't have many friends here- I do
have some but I have trouble socializing with them. I don't know if
this problem is due to the medication, or my unfamiliarity to the
college and the people here, or my busy study schedule, or my shyness,
or all of these things. But when I go home for the weekends I hang out
with old friends and have a great time. In college, I have very little
personality and I am a workoholic, plus I'm not social, I can't smile
often, and when I'm not under the influence of adderall, I become very
depressed and lonely, and my self esteem is very low compared to the
average person. But at home I am social and even considered funny -
one of my friends said I'm one of the funniest people he knows, and
one of his favorite people to be around. I couldn't see how this was
possible, as I am probably harder on myself than others are on me.