New to the Group

[Guest guest]

Hi - My daughter was diagnosed with OCD this summer. She is 12 years

old and is in 7th grade. We had some issues with her when she was in

3rd and 4th but never connected or was told that it may have been OCD

back then. We went into therapy and she seemed to be fine after

about 3 months. But now, 4 years later, we were hit with full on OCD

with many of the typical obsessions. Things got so bad in such a

short amount of time we were shocked (so was she). I think becuase

it hit her so fast, it made it so much worse - within the first three

weeks she was having severe panic attacks, couldn't get dressed, eat

etc without having to count constantly. If she couldn't get to the

right number, she would just cry, scream and end up breathing so hard

and fast that we thought she would pass out. (since then we have

learned that deep " yoga " type breathing really helps - now we just

start and end each day with the breathing). We started therapy ,

however we did not see results right away and things were so bad that

we were recommended to see a Psychiatrist. I really agonized over

the medication, but we started (Zoloft). Right about the time we

started the meds things were a little more in control. She started

school and seems to do well with distractions (friends, the structure

of school, craft projects etc). We are continuing the therapy (CBT

with ERP) once a week for now. I am so gratefel to have found this

group - I have spent a lot of time reading about the people like

myself that feel alone, not knowing who to tell who to talk to and

how to put the pieces of their life together in amongst the chaos.

We have another child (5 yrs old) who has witnessed much more than he

should have to - it is difficult to explain to him. My husband

thinks everything will " be okay " . I feel now that I am just waiting

every day for things to blow up - I question every day whether to

tell the school or not - or wait to see how she does. She is in

honors classes that I wanted to take her out of but she said no way -

she worked hard to be in them. I feel like our life that was once so

simple is now so complicated. Thank you to whoever started this

group - any input on how schools react when they are told or who you

told (nurse vs. guidance vs. principal etc) would be helpful. Sorry

this was so long (belive me I could write much more) but this was

therapeutic in itself. Sincerely, Sue