Re: intro--long ROAN

[Guest guest]

Hi Roan,

I am - also with 5 kids 11, 7, 6, 3 and 1 1/2. My oldest also has OCD.

Email me at cward_ri@.... My son has lots of similar thoughts and we have

found lots to things to help.

I am not posting replies here because religion is not really supposed to be

discussed.

Thanks!

" roanjohnson@... " <roanjohnson@...> wrote:

..

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Hello,

I recently joined this group, and can already tell it will be a wonderful source

of support and advice. I have 5 children: 11yog, 9yog, 7yob, 2yog, 6mob. I am

pretty sure the 11yog has OCD. I have not had a diagnosis, I am really unsure

about where to even start to help her. I have 2 books about OCD ( the authors

are ones you can ask questions to here on this group), and they are such a help.

I have not completed either one. My dd's symptoms began last November, but I

have just learned that there is even such a thing as OCD, and from what I have

read, it describes my dd perfectly. I have not been handling her in the best

way, I am now learning!

She tells me that she has to make choices all day and both choices are " bad " and

she is constantly worried about the choice she made. For example, when she walks

across the room she must decide to step on the rug with her right foot (this

will mean that she blasphemes the Holy Spirit) or step on the rug with her left

foot (this means something else...I can't remember). Everything she does

presents a choice to be made and the turmoil of choosing the lesser of the evils

only to doubt what she chose. This makes no sense to me, this is what she tells

me in tears every night. She is begging me to make her feel normal. She asks me

night after night when will she ever just enjoy her life again, and not be

plagued with making choices......

She also worries that things she has done are bad, may have been bad, someone

else may have thought they were bad, does God really forgive her, must she

confess every single sin, what if she forgets one, etc. I must say the thing she

worries about are ridiculous to me, but so real and heart wrenching to her.

Every night, she tells me one by one her worries, I reassure her that each one

is nothing to be worried about, God forgives her, etc.., Then she feels better.

After reading about OCD, I feel like I am the compulsion that makes her feel

better about her obsessions. What do yall think?

She has rituals to do each night, and then the choices of what to look at last

haunt her and she stays up so very late, terrified to go to sleep because she

may have chosen the wrong thing to look at last. She yawns all day, and is on

the verge of tears all day. She does not enjoy playing, or even reading,

something she previously loved. She is so unhappy and it breaks my heart.

How can I help her?

Thank you for reading such a long post.

Roan