A thought for

[Guest guest]

Hi (and everyone else)! I have a 15 year old son whose primary

obsessions are around his throat or eyelids being cut. He was diagnosed last

year after we spent years trying to guess what could possibly be stressing

him out so much - he was very secretive about what he was experiencing.

School, of course, made everything worse, like it has for so many of our kids

(a fact that breaks my heart as I am a special education teacher!) Sam was

pretty unwilling to try CBT - he was not willing to " open up " to a stranger.

When we finally found a psychiatrist with some OCD experience and talked him

into trying one visit, it made a world of difference for him. She " knew

everything already " he said - anyway, I'm getting off track. Prozac has made

a huge difference for Sam - we have worked VERY slowly up to his current dose

which is 50 mg. - lowering the dose a few times when it made him feel weird

and then easing up again. His doctor doesn't think he's quite at the right

dose yet, but we see an enormous difference. He's not constantly covering

his neck and fluttering his eyelids to make sure they aren't cut. Nights are

the hardest time. Sam even said the other day that OCD was beginning to turn

the tables on him now that he's starting to get some power over it - telling

him something bad will happen if he DOES cover up his neck. What a wicked

condition this is!!! I still want to get him into formal CBT, but we're

moving slowly. He's willing to read about ERP now, and boss OCD back on his

own - he's even asked me a couple of times whether a thought he's having

makes sense or whether it might be OCD. He's learned that if something

" might be OCD " it usually is! I think you have to go slowly and stay

informed, looking for the right moment to talk about things. One thing that

has been really helpful to me was reading that we should really celebrate

small victories, acknowledging how hard it is to live with OCD. I started

telling Sam when I noticed him fighting it, telling him a lot how brave he

is. There is even a section in Schwartz's book " Brain Lock " that

talks about some of the inner strength that people with OCD develop as a

result of learning to manage the condition - Sam loved that! I have no

doubt that we will get him into therapy and back off the medicine eventually

- but without the medicine at this point he would just be too overwhelmed to

even try! And the medicine really got rid of the " afraid to talk about it or

it will get worse " thing. Sam still doesn't like it if I bring it up too

often, but not because he's afraid of it - because it's obnoxious! Good

luck. This is a wonderful group! I don't write often but I follow every

day! Cyndi in VA