Re: Dina / New here

[Guest guest]

Hi Dina,

Yes, it all sounds very familiar. Every bit of it - the back and forth

between sympathy and anger or frustration, the friends and relatives who don't

understand, the sense that your whole world revolves around your daughter's

health, etc. If you CAN find a support group, go for it! It would be a wonderful

thing! I have been lucky enough to find someone on this list who lives about a

mile from me, and we have long lunches together about once a month. It is

unbelievably helpful to have someone who really understands what you're going

through.

I want to reassure you again about your daughter. As I said, my daughter

is now 12 and doing well. She, too, is gifted and although I know she would

have tested higher had she not been in the thick of OCD when tested (it was

right when we were waiting to see the child psychiatrist for the first time that

she school got around to testing her) she still scored in the gifted range.

Similarly, I know she could do better in school and in life if she didn't have

her issues, particularly the ADHD, she does better now than the majority of

kids, if that makes any sense. As her therapist has pointed out, her

intelligence

has helped her compensate for her OCD to a great degree. She wants to go to

Harvard and be a neurosurgeon or a facial reconstruction surgeon, but I'll be

happy if she just goes to a decent college and graduates! She is doing well in

middle school after a few really rocky years in elementary school, and I think

she'll be able to do some honors classes in high school. Again, if she didn't

have OCD+, she would be a stellar student so it IS affecting her, but she is a

top student nevertheless.

One of the best things about having a good therapist is that she helps ME

cope with all of this as well. I have had a session alone with her a couple

of times and found it very reassuring. She was able to help me better

understand what the future holds for Annie.

Continue to ask questions - as many as you want. That's what we're here

for! And feel free to write me off-list as well, if you want.

Best wishes,

in NV