New Member

Report post · October 30, 2001

Welcome Sonya!

My son is 10yo with OCD, and is a NEW and IMPROVED child at the

moment thanks to ERP therapy AND medication. His life has

DRASTICALLY turned around since May now that:

1) I'm no longer enabling (or feeding) his fears by reassuring him

that he won't get sick. His therapy has helped pull me OUT of the

dependency cycle thanks to the moderators on this list (wendy, kathy

r, kathy h, etc..) and a Top Notch therapist (with a PHD in behavior

mod) who has never had an OCD patient before. was her 'guinea

pig', and she gets an A+ To give myself a little credit, I went in

to therapy with a mission-- and wasn't about to leave without what I

wanted!

2)We found the right medication. I'm not a fan of medicating my

child, but it has given me my life back, and restored my son's

childhood. He's taking Luvox for OCD, and Risperdal for the

moodiness. Life is GOOD!

3)I'm Back In Charge. Last year at this time, I was depressed and

hopeless. When would stay in the shower for over an hour, I

gave in and let him. I had no fight left in me. Things are so much

different this year. We stay IN FRONT of the problems, predict them

and set rules before they happen. He was late 36 times to school

last year. This year: zero.

Anyway... I'm sure you're aware of all the pitfalls of parenting a

child with OCD, so I share the above info with the GROUP (not to you

personally). 's school is totally amazed at the turn-around and

gains he's made in a few short months. I have to give ALOT of credit

to this group of amazingly strong, educated and dedicated parents!!!

Good luck and continue to keep us posted!

Joni

Mom of (20), (18, ADHD+mild OCD) and (10, OCD)

> Just wanted to take a moment and introduce myself and my family.

My

> daughter was diagnosed in January with OCD. We believe her

symptoms

> began at about age 3. She continued to go down hill until January

of

> this year and she was taken out of school. Her physician is Dr.

> at University of Florida/Shands. Her therapist is Dr.

> Lemli (he works with CBT). Her doctors believe she has

PANDAS

> OCD. My daughter is eight years old and has a younger brother who

is

> almost six. She is back in school at the moment. When she is well

> she has only a few OCD symptoms, which only require minimum CBT to

> stop. When she is ill she stops functioning. She can no longer

> write, dress herself, turn on and off light switches and faucets,

> pump soap dispensers. She has paths that she has to take around

the

> house, certain ways of getting on and off furniture and out of

> rooms. She gets stuck everywhere. We have to lift her up and

carry

> her to two tiles in our family room. She wants us to place her on

> these tiles twice, facing East. During this time she washes her

> hands often and nothing " feels right " . Her movements become odd

and

> she becomes oppositional after about 10 days after the flare up

> begins. She will hit, bite, pinch, tear up her room, etc. The

> therapist cannot offer anything but emotional support because she

> wont listen to anything he says. She has walked out on sessions

> during her flare ups. She gets very hyper and wont sit still for

> him. During her last flare up she was diving over the back of his

> couch and rolling on to the floor over and over again. She also

> can't pick up anything off the floor. She is taken out of school

at

> this time and takes tests orally and I write for her. She will say

> when she is ready to go back to school and around this time her OCD

> symptoms will start dropping off. Her therapist says it is like

> night and day...sick and well. When she is well she is a straight

A

> student and active in sports and theatre...when she is sick she

sits

> on the couch and watches I Love Lucy reruns all day. It ususally

> takes about four weeks before she is back in school again.

>

> One thing we have found with is that strep doesn't look like

> strep. No red or swollen throat, no fever, just a flare up in her

> OCD. We are checking into plasma exchange. In the meantime we use

> NAET treatments to keep her immune system built up (www.NAET.com).

> Sometimes it helps, sometimes it just speeds up the recovery time.

> There is no support group where we live and we are thankful to have

> heard about this sight. We are members of the OCD foundation. If

> you have any questions, feel free to ask. My husband and I

certainly

> understand the struggles that you go through, including school

> situations, needing to work for extra income and not being able to,

> long, long periods of not " getting out " . We look forward to

talking

> with you. Sonya Haywood

Report post · October 30, 2001

Thanks for the information Joni, actually when is well she

does quite well with exposure and response. She is extremely easy to

work with and usually only needs a " remember what you are working on "

statment from us and she immediately stops doing the ritual. It is

when she is ill that the therapist cannot work with her. He likens

it to night and day. She goes from being very compliant and open to

working on it to a point where you can look into her eyes and tell

that she is not even there anymore. It takes about four weeks after

being on an antibiotic for the symptoms to calm down and then she is

right back to where she was before the illness.

In @y..., " Joni " <lyricaldreamer@y...> wrote:

> Welcome Sonya!

> My son is 10yo with OCD, and is a NEW and IMPROVED child at the

> moment thanks to ERP therapy AND medication. His life has

> DRASTICALLY turned around since May now that:

> 1) I'm no longer enabling (or feeding) his fears by reassuring him

> that he won't get sick. His therapy has helped pull me OUT of the

> dependency cycle thanks to the moderators on this list (wendy,

kathy

> r, kathy h, etc..) and a Top Notch therapist (with a PHD in

behavior

> mod) who has never had an OCD patient before. was

her 'guinea

> pig', and she gets an A+ To give myself a little credit, I went in

> to therapy with a mission-- and wasn't about to leave without what

I

> wanted!

2)We found the right medication. I'm not a fan of medicating my

> child, but it has given me my life back, and restored my son's

> childhood. He's taking Luvox for OCD, and Risperdal for the

> moodiness. Life is GOOD!

> 3)I'm Back In Charge. Last year at this time, I was depressed and

> hopeless. When would stay in the shower for over an hour, I

> gave in and let him. I had no fight left in me. Things are so

much

> different this year. We stay IN FRONT of the problems, predict

them

> and set rules before they happen. He was late 36 times to school

> last year. This year: zero.

>

> Anyway... I'm sure you're aware of all the pitfalls of parenting a

> child with OCD, so I share the above info with the GROUP (not to

you

> personally). 's school is totally amazed at the turn-around

nd

> gains he's made in a few short months. I have to give ALOT of

credit

> to this group of amazingly strong, educated and dedicated

parents!!!

>

> Good luck and continue to keep us posted!

> Joni

> Mom of (20), (18, ADHD+mild OCD) and (10, OCD)

>

> > Just wanted to take a moment and introduce myself and my family.

> My

> > daughter was diagnosed in January with OCD. We believe her

> symptoms

> began at about age 3. She continued to go down hill until January

> of

> > this year and she was taken out of school. Her physician is Dr.

> > at University of Florida/Shands. Her therapist is

Dr.

> > Lemli (he works with CBT). Her doctors believe she has

> PANDAS

> > OCD. My daughter is eight years old and has a younger brother

who

> is

> > almost six. She is back in school at the moment. When she is

well

> > she has only a few OCD symptoms, which only require minimum CBT

to

> > stop. When she is ill she stops functioning. She can no longer

> > write, dress herself, turn on and off light switches and faucets,

> > pump soap dispensers. She has paths that she has to take around

> > house, certain ways of getting on and off furniture and out of

> > rooms. She gets stuck everywhere. We have to lift her up and

> carry

> > her to two tiles in our family room. She wants us to place her

on

> > these tiles twice, facing East. During this time she washes her

> > hands often and nothing " feels right " . Her movements become odd

> and

> > she becomes oppositional after about 10 days after the flare up

> > begins. She will hit, bite, pinch, tear up her room, etc. The

> > therapist cannot offer anything but emotional support because she

> > wont listen to anything he says. She has walked out on sessions

> > during her flare ups. She gets very hyper and wont sit still for

> > him. During her last flare up she was diving over the back of

his

> > couch and rolling on to the floor over and over again. She also

> can't pick up anything off the floor. She is taken out of school

> at

> > this time and takes tests orally and I write for her. She will

say

> > when she is ready to go back to school and around this time her

OCD

> > symptoms will start dropping off. Her therapist says it is like

> > night and day...sick and well. When she is well she is a

straight

> A

> > student and active in sports and theatre...when she is sick she

> sits

> > on the couch and watches I Love Lucy reruns all day. It ususally

> > takes about four weeks before she is back in school again.

> >

> > One thing we have found with is that strep doesn't look >

> strep. No red or swollen throat, no fever, just a flare up in her

> > OCD. We are checking into plasma exchange. In the meantime we

use

> > NAET treatments to keep her immune system built up

(www.NAET.com).

> > Sometimes it helps, sometimes it just speeds up the recovery

time.

> > There is no support group where we live and we are thankful to

have

> > heard about this sight. We are members of the OCD foundation.

If

> > you have any questions, feel free to ask. My husband and I

> certainly

> > understand the struggles that you go through, including school

> > situations, needing to work for extra income and not being able

to,

> > long, long periods of not " getting out " . We look forward to

> talking

> > with you. Sonya Haywood

Report post · October 30, 2001

Dear Sonya,

Welcome to our group!! I think you will find, as we all did, that

having some support helps tremendously with the stress of raising a child

with OCD. I also have a daughter with OCD. She has just turned nine. I also

have a son who will turn six next month. My daughter had a sudden onset of

OCD when she was four after a bout with encephalitis, although she was

clearly predisposed to anxiety before then. She too can have periods during

which she seems almost completely well, and then periods when she is very ill

(though not nearly as ill as your poor daughter). She fits the criteria for

PANDAS completely, except that her strep titers have always come out

negative. There is some other immune system connection which no one has

worked out yet, apparently.

You sound as if you are providing your daughter with excellent care.

The one good thing I can say about having a young child with OCD is that they

accept treatment and even if later they refuse to participate (which seems

quite common among teens) they have already learned the foundation of CBT,

which will last a lifetime. In the two years that my daughter has been in

therapy she has learned so much about dealing with OCD - she amazes me

sometimes.

Best wishes to you, and keep writing. Your story sounds so familiar, i

can't even tell you - especially the diving over the couch bit. Been there,

done that...

,

mother of Annie (9) with OCD and Ben (soon to be six, who just suffers from

having to live with a sister with OCD)

Report post · October 31, 2001

Yes, there is definently a connection between the immune system and a

worsening of the OCD. gets worse with strep, but has also had

other illnesses that made her OCD flare up. I am not convinced the

the blood work or cultures always show the strep. When I took her

for a NAET treatment after these tests were done and were negative,

strep was still showing up. Some believe that the strep hides itself

in the body, kind of like yeast. It is in the body, but only shows

up as a yeast infection at certain times.

The problem is that it is difficult to plan anything because you

never can tell when a child is going to get sick. My husband came

home last night and said that we are running out of money (we have

put and in a private school this year. They really

work with and her OCD)from having to pay the school tuition.

He said that I need to get out there and get a job, but not a night

job. I said " Oh yeah, I can see it now. We would love to hire you

Mrs. Haywood. We are very impressed with your resume and skills.

When can you start? " " Well, I can start right away. " " By the way,

there will probably be several times a year when I will be gone for

about three to four weeks at a time to help my daughter who has OCD.

Is that OK " . I am sure that the answer will be " you look like you

could do such great work, that we are willing to make that

sacrifice " . HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!!!!!

You just gotta laugh, keeps you sane.

Sonya mother of (8 with OCD) and (almost six and has

learned to copy 's OCD to try to get out of doing things)

> Dear Sonya,

> Welcome to our group!! I think you will find, as we all did,

that

> having some support helps tremendously with the stress of raising a

child

> with OCD. I also have a daughter with OCD. She has just turned

nine. I also

> have a son who will turn six next month. My daughter had a sudden

onset of

> OCD when she was four after a bout with encephalitis, although she

was

> clearly predisposed to anxiety before then. She too can have

periods during

> which she seems almost completely well, and then periods when she

is very ill

> (though not nearly as ill as your poor daughter). She fits the

criteria for

> PANDAS completely, except that her strep titers have always come

out

> negative. There is some other immune system connection which no one

has

> worked out yet, apparently.

> You sound as if you are providing your daughter with

excellent care.

> The one good thing I can say about having a young child with OCD is

that they

> accept treatment and even if later they refuse to participate

(which seems

> quite common among teens) they have already learned the foundation

of CBT,

> which will last a lifetime. In the two years that my daughter has

been in

> therapy she has learned so much about dealing with OCD - she amazes

me

> sometimes.

> Best wishes to you, and keep writing. Your story sounds so

familiar, i

> can't even tell you - especially the diving over the couch bit.

Been there,

> done that...

> ,

> mother of Annie (9) with OCD and Ben (soon to be six, who just

suffers from

> having to live with a sister with OCD)

>

Report post · October 31, 2001

Hi Sonya,

Welcome to ! You mentioned in your post that there are no

OCD support groups where you live. This group does a great job of filling

that void. In terms of , perhaps she would be interested in

OCDKidsSupportGroup. It's an online support group for kids 7-12 and it

works pretty much like this list does. I am the list moderator and keep an

eye out for saftey issues, etc. If you are interested in having her

subscribe, let me know and I can give you the sub info.

Kathy

--

Kathy Mac, LICSW

email: macdonald@...

Report post · October 31, 2001

Hi Sonja,

Yes, I know the feeling...but we do what we have to. You might try a hospital

where there are lots of employees who can fill in when you are needed at home.

Good luck to you-- (who has a full time job, two part time jobs, and teach

at my son's school so I can keep an eye on him)

Re: New Member