Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (OCD)

[catwoman2]

Well, my difficult child's adhd seemed to have become less noticable the last year or so, she was even off her medications (mostly because of the side effects). Now she has Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (OCD). When I look back throughout her younger years, I start to see some things that were probably Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (OCD) then, but they were fairly minor. Things like having to have her blankets "fixed" (put nice and tidy over her) or she wouldn't go to sleep until I "fixed" them. She used to have an old computer in her room for playing games on, but we had to remove it because she became terrified of it, claiming it might turn on by itself during the night. We tried to reassure her that it wouldn't come on by itself, but she was so obsessed with the thought of it turning on by itself that there was no reasoning with her. And the fact that I always knew if she did something wrong because she always told on herself. Her older brother used to laugh at her and ask her why she told on herself all he time and she said she had to or she would get a headache. For right now, she seems to just have obsessive thoughts and no compulsions or rituals, other than making sure her hair is "just right" or her pony tail is straight, but that could be just her age. She is starting on prozac to help with her thoughts and therapy to help her deal with the Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (OCD). Anyone else with difficult child's with Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (OCD)? Any success in keeping it under control?

 

[BusynMember]

Paxil REALLY helped my compulsive thoughts and ruminating, however I still do it if not as much. Paxil and Prozac are very similar so I wish your sweet daughter good luck with the medication. I'Tourette's Syndrome NOT fun to obsess over and over again.

 

[Josie]

My daughter has Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (OCD). She is taking a very small dose of Lexapro to help and we have done CBT/ERP therapy for her. It is my understanding that the CBT/ERP therapy is the most successful treatment for Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (OCD) but some people need medicine to help them do it.

For CBT/ERP therapy, the person exposes themselves to their fear and sees that their anxiety will come down even without doing the compulsion. For example, with the computer coming on, your daughter would possibly spend time imagining the computer coming on, get very anxious, but see that she couldn't stay so anxious forever and would get over it. In theory, once they see how it works, they are able to recognize Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (OCD) in new situations and do this exercise themselves to get over it.

There is a good book about Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (OCD) called "What to do When Your CHild has Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (OCD)" by Aureen Pinto Wagner.

My daughter has been able to get over some of her obsessions with the CBT/ERP.

 

[BusynMember]

CBT is fantastic therapy. It helped me a lot in many ways. You may want to pick up the book "Feeling Good" by Dr. David Burns and read it to get an overview. There are a few drawbacks, although not enough to discount it. Here are a few problems.

1/The child has to be old enough to process CBT. I was an adult.

2/In spite of how successful CBT is (and I find it great), not everyone can get over Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (OCD) without medication, although medication alone in my opinion should not be the only part of Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (OCD) treatment. Also Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (OCD) exists in other disorders too, such as high functioning autism, bipolar disorder, and Tourette's Syndrome so check it all out. But, yeah, another vote for CBT.

 

[TerryJ2]

Aw, I am so sorry about your daughter. I hope that the medications do the trick, along with-therapy. She sounds sweet.

 

[susiestar]

One of the drug co's, I think the makers of either paxil or zoloft, has a video about Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (OCD). It is older, but was very helpful.

Many many people use SSRI's to help with Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (OCD). Typically the dose needed is HIGHER than that used for depression.

Wiz is pretty much normal on the Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (OCD) front right now. Not that it is gone, but he manages to keep it from interfering in his life for the most part.

When he was younger we had to remove pokemon and then D&D quite a few times. We would start to have difficult child problems as the obsession grew. At a point it took over his life, or if he was lying, cheating or stealing to get to the item I would go through and take EVERYTHING related to it away. There was much gnashing of teeth and ranting at mel

After he could see how things were different and even thanked us several times. A few months later we would start to re-introduce them to help him learn to manage his obsessions.

He does have thousands of dollars invested in D&D and Magic the Gathering. Over the years I gave away or pitched at least $1000 in pokemon and D&D stuff. I refused to have Magic in the house. Not because it was against values or whatever, but because each time thank you found a card or book we then had a full week of nightmares and daytime clinginess.

After I figured out the Magic cards were triggering nightmares they were banned. We never did figure out a way to contain that stuff to one room. Wiz also would "accidentally" leave a card by thank you's toothbrush or on his pillow if he got upset with thank you or wanted to tease him about being a "baby".

We solved THAT by making Wiz get up with us each time thank you got me up. He had to STAY up AND he had to do something special with thank you the next day to make up for it.

The KEY is to help them mature enough to learn to moderate things. Therapy is needed. The kinds of exposures shown in the A&E series Obsessed should ONLY be done with professional supervision.

Now that Wiz is working he is regretting having spent all that money on those games. He sees them now in hours he has to work to gain that much money. He actually told me he wished I had been able to make him see how hard it is to earn that much money so he would not have spent so much on them.

He did spend many many many hours at the University Library where printing is free. He printed off thousands of pages of D&D stuff that has become free to anyone.

 

[tictoc]

Hi,
I find Zoloft very effective for my Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (OCD). We have yet to get difficult child to a therapeutic dose on anything to help with his Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (OCD) and he proved to be too young for CBT to help much. We'll try again when he is older. But, the cognitive-behavioral therapist said that 80% of patients get some relief from Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (OCD) symptoms with either CBT or medication alone or with the two together. However, the rate of relapse is much higher for those who receive only therapy or medications (about 80%). The relapse rate for those receiving both is around 20%.