I continue to read the book “The Man Who Couldn’t Stop,” by David Adam, and found the information about serotonin and OCD to be quite hopeful.
“The brain needs serotonin because, as complex and marvelous as it is, most of its neurons can’t communicate directly with each other. At the business end of these neurons there lies a tiny gap that separates them from their neighbours. For neuron A to pass a signal to neuron B it needs serotonin. Spare serotonin sloshing around in the gaps is reclaimed (taken up) by the neurons for when they will need it again. That is about all we need to know for sure about how serotonin works in the OCD brain. Much of the rest of the so-called serotonin hypothesis for OCD is based on some reverse engineering. The logic goes like this: The SSRI drugs keep levels of serotonin in the free space between the cells higher than they would be otherwise. The drugs inhibit the uptake. This seems to relieve OCD symptoms, at least in some people. Therefore, the reverse engineering says, OCD must be caused by abnormally low serotonin levels.”