New member

Report post · August 21, 2002

Jen,

Hi. Since you have other children at the school and are on the PTA

that is a help. Did you ever think of having your son where a

colorful tag or wrist ban so teachers and or lunch room people can

see that as a " red " flag for his allergies. Marily

Report post · August 21, 2002

Jen,

Hi. Since you have other children at the school and are on the PTA

that is a help. Did you ever think of having your son where a

colorful tag or wrist ban so teachers and or lunch room people can

see that as a " red " flag for his allergies. Marily

Report post · August 22, 2002

Jen:

Oh my gosh, your son sounds exactly like mine when he was 6 and diagnosed with

OCD. was also allergic to basically everything; legumes, wheat, corn, soy,

eggs, etc. To my surprise (and I really didn't realize it for quite some time)

's allergies started to disappear when his medicine for OCD and other veggie

soup things kicked in. Shortly after that I saw a TV special on some obscure

cable channel feature a doctor from the Univ. of Wisc. Hospital of Psychiatry

and he confirmed that they have done studies that showed their is a correlation

between allergies and status of mental health (he had some long medical term for

it that I have since forgotten). He still has an allergy to milk but can

periodically eat pizza and ice cream without having a severe reaction.

Our son also would not drink out of someone else's cup, or let anyone touch his

food, etc. Through therapy we found out that I contaminate some of the foods.

Foods that are pre-wrapped by the food companies are " safe " and he'll eat most

of the them, but when it comes to meat, no way!!! Oddly, he will eat chicken

fingers, corn dogs and hamburgers from restaurants -- but isn't that the story

of OCD? No rationale. But there is hope with the right medication to help him

confront ERP to beat these food fears. is finally sitting at the table

with us and will eat something's that I prepare -- but meat is still giving us

problems. It doesn't seem like he's progressed that far until I look back at

how things were 4 years ago and I say " wow " !

Well, I'll stop my babbling, but keep posting and we'll all be here to help you

through those bumpy times and to celebrate with you when he has his successes.

Hang in there.

Tamra

Omaha, NE

new member

Hello! I have just found this group and it looks very helpful. I

have a 4 1/2 year old son that has recently been diagnosed with ocd.

He is also anaphylactic and food allergic. I'm in the process now of

getting him ready to start pre-k in about 2 weeks. This is going to

be a very " interesting " event. Does anyone have any advice on how to

prepare him, or the school for this?

Report post · October 14, 2002

I would do the questionaire for Bipolar in children. My daughter is BP and

OCD. Alot of her OCD behavior could be caused by also being BP. We are now

on Celexa for lowest weight gain and will start Topamax-mood stabilizer in 6

wks. Was told this with help OCD. Good luck Ellen

Report post · October 14, 2002

Hi there,

I'm so sorry to hear about all you've been through. I don't have

time to respond adequately to your message just now, but I did want to say

that you should call the psychiatrist, say it's an emergency and ask to be

put on the cancellation list. Sometimes they miraculously " find " appointments

if the parent sounds distraught enough, and people DO cancel appointments.

Make a pest of yourself - you don't want your daughter to backslide any

further.

The other thing I'd say is that some of your daughter's behavior (at

school for example) sounds a lot like my daughter did last year. She was on

Celexa for her OCD, and Adderall for ADHD but was increasingly defiant,

irritable and constantly getting in little bits of trouble here and there,

particularly at school. Our psychiatrist put her on a tiny dose of Risperdal

(0.25 mg.) and it made all the difference in the world - she is a very happy

pleasant person again. Of course, your daughter's OCD is not under control at

the moment and that makes kids VERY irritable too. But I just thought I'd

mention the Risperdal because it's been a Godsend for us. It's often used as

an adjunct to the OCD meds.

Best wishes to you - you've come to the right place for help. More later,

in Nevada

Report post · October 14, 2002

Hi, ville! and other new members,

You mention so many things! I am going to respond to a

couple:

1) If you call your professional and they say there are no

appointments, keep calling. Daily, if you feel that necessary.

You will be surprised that a cancellation suddenly comes up, or

the person will agree to see you before or after usual hours. If

necessary, ask them for a referral to someone who can see you

sooner.

2) I highly recommend that you take some time to review the

Obsessive-Compulsive Foundations website.

http://www.ocfoundation.org

You will find links to referrals for local support groups, Ask

the Experts, etc. It is an award winning website that will keep

you busy for hours and hours!

3) Go into our home page, click on FILES and read a variety of

articles related to finding therapists, medication in children,

abbriviations, Dr. Herb Gravitz's article on Help for the

Family, etc. Sunday evenings there is a CHAT that you can ask

other members in 'realtime' for their opinions.

http://groups.yahoo.com/group//

4) When your child's personality has made an obvious turn for

the worse, remember that this is not 'your child' but the

disorder/s. Identifying the reaction as OCD related, stress

related, etc. can help you remain calm, and teach her to work on

control.

a maybe reacting to the increase in Zoloft, struggling

to find peace in a very chaotic world, or so exhausted that she

can't function as before. In most cases, this is a temporary

stage, and it too shall pass. When you see her begin to react,

that is the best time to have her back down, go to another room,

or in some way change directions. Try to avoid the full reaction

of a meltdown. Both of you will appreciate it. Remember not to

become ingaged in any rituals/compulsions that will cause a

meltdown if you dont comply!! Reassurance seeking is a perfect

example.

5) Try to find time to spend alone with the other family

members. It is very important to allow them time to vent, to

help you problem solve and feel wanted and needed. If you have a

partner, try and engage them in your team - co-parenting VS

doing it on your own. If necessary, find a therapist (social

worker, psychologist, clergy, ...) who can do some family work

to help build the team. If this person is experienced with ocd

in the family its better, but with any mental health experiences

is fine too.

With any professional, interview them in advance either by

telephone or in person. The kids will be experiencing many

'professionals' throughout their lives and you want to narrow

the choices down to the best. Be an educated consumer, purchase

the services wisely.

I like to use the expression: " Do you conduct CBT for OCD

using ERP? If you understood this, please call back! " If they

can respond with " Yes, I use cognitive behavioural therapy for

obsessive-compulsive disorder using the exposure and

response/ritual prevention method. " then you have a match!!

Most importantly, take care of yourself. As the primary care

giver, you are the pillar that everyone leans on. If you

collaps, well you know what happens!

take care, wendy birkhan, BSW;RSW

--- youcantalk2 wrote:

.... I called her psych's office and they told me they had no

openings until our next scheduled med check appointment in

December! I could not even talk to him! The message was to

increase her Zoloft to 150 mg until we see him. I have done that

but I do not see any change. In fact, I think she is worse

because now she is acting defiant and is lying! This is not the

personality of my daughter. She used to be so sweet!

.... It is tearing the family apart. She has a 16 yr old sister

and a 13 year old brother. I am trying to get her a new

psychiatrist and a psychologist who are experienced with OCD. It

has been so difficult. I live in ville, FL. Any advice?

______________________________________________________________________

Post your free ad now! http://personals.yahoo.ca

Report post · October 14, 2002

Hi and welcome!

I don't have much time now but wanted to quickly comment.

I have a 13 y/o son who was diagnosed with OCD 2 years ago. He also

had the tendencies at an earlier age but nothing that interfered with

daily life until he began 6th grade and then suddenly all these new

behaviors began and were just a constant thing. In his case, I don't

know of any particular event/thing triggering it.

I wanted to say that my also held it together pretty well at

school but would just " let it all out " at home. Hard to explain to

the teachers when they can't " see it " at school, especially if they

don't know what to look for. I remember some 2-3 hour long episodes

at home back then, sigh! Also, the few months before his OCD seemed

to hit " overnight " his temper was beginning to show. And this was

the one of my 3 sons who never had a temper!! He was my patient,

calm, GOOD child!

I will say that after these 2 very long years, he's doing so much

better now. But I do notice that he's got a short fuse at times when

his OCD is waxing some.

As someone already said, keep calling about getting an appointment.

I would think they would have someone to handle " emergencies " or

would work you in. If the increase in the Zoloft seems to have made

things worse, perhaps she'll settle down after she adjusts to the

change. You might call and leave a message for her psych about it

and see if at least his office can call you back with a reply.

Gotta go, let us know how things progress!

- single mom to 3 sons -

> Hi, everyone. This is a first for me--writing about my daughter to

a

> group of strangers. But I am hopeful that you can help me. I have

a

> 10 year old daughter that was formally diagnosed with OCD one year

> ago. I actually diagnosed her several years ago after watching a

> program on television. At that time she had " tendencies " . She was

> in kindergarten then. She did not want to touch anything dirty,

> would put her socks on 50 times until the seam on the toes was

> straight, etc. However, she was happy and functional and

> these " quirks " did not interefere with life. Then the " quirks "

went

> away for a few years and started up slightly in the summer of

2001.

> Well, in August she took her first plane ride by herself to visit

my

> mother in Baltimore (I live in FL). She wanted to do this for

> several years and I finally felt she was old enough. Well, she was

> afraid on the plane and missed me tremendously in Balto. She would

> not eat because my Mom's dishes were not " clean " and would not take

a

> bath because of the " dirty " tub and would not sit on my mom's

> furniture because it was full of cat hair. My mom is 75 and I did

> not realize that she had started to really deteriorate and

housework

> was not a priority. Plus her vision was getting poor and she

probably

> did not see the dirt. My mom did not recognize these acts as OCD

but

> as defiant behavior and treated my daughter with a stern hand and

> said " fine, then you won't eat. " My daughter did not eat for 7

days--

> --she only drank lemonade from a carton. She also did not sleep

well

> at all. I did not know any of this was happening----too many

details

> to bore you with. Bottom line, my daughter came off the airplane

> after a 10 day trip in a condition that was shocking--she was not

> talking, glazed eyes, drooling, sores all over her body, wearing

her

> cousin's big boy's clothing, hair knotted. She could only walk with

> her shirt covering her mouth. Three steps forward, stop, three

deep

> breaths, two steps backward. Everything was being done in sets of

3.

> An emergency psychiatric visit ended with a suggestion for

admission

> to a psych unit in a hospital, which I denied. She was put on

> Cloni...and Paxil. She became functional within two weeks but the

> Paxil was making her sleepy and gave her stomach aches. She was

> switched to 50mg of Zoloft. She made miraculous improvement on the

> med. The only remaining oddity was that nothing from Baltimore

could

> be seen. Items were either thrown away or stored in the attic. We

> could not talk about any thing dealing with Grandma or Baltimore

for

> 8 months. (She did try 2 mental health counselors who both

> discharged her after a few sessions because she was so good in

> therapy-----they were not, I know now, really experienced with OCD

> and did nothing to help her.) She continued to improve and then

> started to fall, Zoloft was increased to 100 mg. and she was doing

> great. In fact, this past summer I praised God because she was

> almost " normal " . She talked to Grandma for the first time on the

> phone. She even saw her for an hour 3x when I took her to Baltimore

> this past August. Things were great-----and then she started back

to

> school (which she was excited to do) and things have been going

down

> hill since. She got a detention the first week because she called

a

> girl a witch. She got suspended from choir for 4 weeks because she

> was talking during Mass. She got in trouble for humming during a

> test and another time because she did not ask a girl to remove her

> belongings from her desk " nicely. " Now, a is back to saying

> things 2x, will avoid things, rooms, or people " BECAUSE " . She

will

> not wear any of her clothes unless they have been removed from her

> room by a person wearing gloves and washed and then she will wear

> them. I can not wash them ahead of time; it must be right before

she

> wears them before the " contamination " sets in. One week she

avoided

> the kitchen. She would go through the windows of the florida room

to

> get to and from the rest of the house. She will not sit in the back

> left seat of the car. She can only use one hairbrush, one fork,

one

> plate, etc. I called her psych's office and they told me they had

no

> openings until our next scheduled med check appointment in

December!

> I could not even talk to him! The message was to increase her

Zoloft

> to 150 mg until we see him. I have done that but I do not see any

> change. In fact, I think she is worse because now she is acting

> defiant and is lying! This is not the personality of my daughter.

> She used to be so sweet! The problem is that her teacher never got

> to meet the " sweet " girl a. She acts so head strong in school

> and then she melts at night at home and cries in her closet. Is

any

> one else experiencing symptoms like this? It is tearing the family

> apart. She has a 16 yr old sister and a 13 year old brother. I am

> trying to get her a new psychiatrist and a psychologist who are

> experienced with OCD. It has been so difficult. I live in

> ville, FL. Any advice?

Report post · October 14, 2002

Hello. I wanted to welcome you to the group. Finding this group when my son,

Luke's, OCD was at its worst was a God send. Please write with your questions

or concerns, and most of all, keep us posted on your progress.

Luke was at 200 mg of Zoloft at age 7 1/2-8 and eventually the psych added

Risperdal, which mentioned. This did help him a lot, but in the end it

did not turn out to be a great med for him (weight gain, lethargic, tired,

unmotivated). Therefore, we completely changed meds last year to Luvox.

One thing I've learned from this group is that all SSRIs affect all individuals

differently. Also, an SSRI that has been working may seem to quit working after

a period of time. When Luke was first put on meds I thought to myself... " okay,

he has a condition, now we have the meds to " fix " it and everything will be

okay. " Well, everything was and is going to be okay (and for you and your

family too), but not in the way I was thinking. The meds have to be constantly

monitored, and we have had a very difficult time finding a therapist trained to

work with kids with OCD.

I can't speak from a therapy standpoint, but many on this group have had great

success with either therapy alone or in conjunction with meds. Is your daughter

in therapy? (thanks for the blurb to leave on the answering machine of

all these therapists!)

It sounds like your main goal right now, however, is to get some control on the

situation. Do be persistent with the psych's office as it seems you have every

right to be seen right away in a situation like this.

Take care.

Warmly,

in Missouri (9 year old Luke's mom)

New Member

Hi, everyone. This is a first for me--writing about my daughter to a

group of strangers. But I am hopeful that you can help me. I have a

10 year old daughter that was formally diagnosed with OCD one year

ago. I actually diagnosed her several years ago after watching a

program on television. At that time she had " tendencies " . She was

in kindergarten then. She did not want to touch anything dirty,

would put her socks on 50 times until the seam on the toes was

straight, etc. However, she was happy and functional and

these " quirks " did not interefere with life. Then the " quirks " went

away for a few years and started up slightly in the summer of 2001.

Well, in August she took her first plane ride by herself to visit my

mother in Baltimore (I live in FL). She wanted to do this for

several years and I finally felt she was old enough. Well, she was

afraid on the plane and missed me tremendously in Balto. She would

not eat because my Mom's dishes were not " clean " and would not take a

bath because of the " dirty " tub and would not sit on my mom's

furniture because it was full of cat hair. My mom is 75 and I did

not realize that she had started to really deteriorate and housework

was not a priority. Plus her vision was getting poor and she probably

did not see the dirt. My mom did not recognize these acts as OCD but

as defiant behavior and treated my daughter with a stern hand and

said " fine, then you won't eat. " My daughter did not eat for 7 days--

--she only drank lemonade from a carton. She also did not sleep well

at all. I did not know any of this was happening----too many details

to bore you with. Bottom line, my daughter came off the airplane

after a 10 day trip in a condition that was shocking--she was not

talking, glazed eyes, drooling, sores all over her body, wearing her

cousin's big boy's clothing, hair knotted. She could only walk with

her shirt covering her mouth. Three steps forward, stop, three deep

breaths, two steps backward. Everything was being done in sets of 3.

An emergency psychiatric visit ended with a suggestion for admission

to a psych unit in a hospital, which I denied. She was put on

Cloni...and Paxil. She became functional within two weeks but the

Paxil was making her sleepy and gave her stomach aches. She was

switched to 50mg of Zoloft. She made miraculous improvement on the

med. The only remaining oddity was that nothing from Baltimore could

be seen. Items were either thrown away or stored in the attic. We

could not talk about any thing dealing with Grandma or Baltimore for

8 months. (She did try 2 mental health counselors who both

discharged her after a few sessions because she was so good in

therapy-----they were not, I know now, really experienced with OCD

and did nothing to help her.) She continued to improve and then

started to fall, Zoloft was increased to 100 mg. and she was doing

great. In fact, this past summer I praised God because she was

almost " normal " . She talked to Grandma for the first time on the

phone. She even saw her for an hour 3x when I took her to Baltimore

this past August. Things were great-----and then she started back to

school (which she was excited to do) and things have been going down

hill since. She got a detention the first week because she called a

girl a witch. She got suspended from choir for 4 weeks because she

was talking during Mass. She got in trouble for humming during a

test and another time because she did not ask a girl to remove her

belongings from her desk " nicely. " Now, a is back to saying

things 2x, will avoid things, rooms, or people " BECAUSE " . She will

not wear any of her clothes unless they have been removed from her

room by a person wearing gloves and washed and then she will wear

them. I can not wash them ahead of time; it must be right before she

wears them before the " contamination " sets in. One week she avoided

the kitchen. She would go through the windows of the florida room to

get to and from the rest of the house. She will not sit in the back

left seat of the car. She can only use one hairbrush, one fork, one

plate, etc. I called her psych's office and they told me they had no

openings until our next scheduled med check appointment in December!

I could not even talk to him! The message was to increase her Zoloft

to 150 mg until we see him. I have done that but I do not see any

change. In fact, I think she is worse because now she is acting

defiant and is lying! This is not the personality of my daughter.

She used to be so sweet! The problem is that her teacher never got

to meet the " sweet " girl a. She acts so head strong in school

and then she melts at night at home and cries in her closet. Is any

one else experiencing symptoms like this? It is tearing the family

apart. She has a 16 yr old sister and a 13 year old brother. I am

trying to get her a new psychiatrist and a psychologist who are

experienced with OCD. It has been so difficult. I live in

ville, FL. Any advice?

Report post · October 14, 2002

Hi and Welcome!

All the advise has been great. The only thing I can add is about

Grandma's House.

A little background first-- I have an 11 year old son with severe

contamination issues. He will FIND things wrong and " dirty " in the

simplest of things. Example: You know those itty bitty wheat specks

in a piece of bread? My son thinks it's a germ - and it will most

surely kill him dead!

Last summer, he refused to go swimming in the pool because ONE boy

said that if you swallow cholorine, his stomach would have to be

pumped out at the hospital. He had the worst meltdown last summer

when I said " let's go to the pool " - and I had no idea why!!

Sooooooo.... I've had to realize that my son has a whole different

reality than I do. In hindsight, I know now that when I say " pool " -

he thinks " septic tank. " When I say " flu " - he thinks " death. " It's

over-the-top stuff like that.

In addition, my house is pretty clean and orderly, but before he got

the right medication, he would find a speck on the couch and blow it

out of preportion! So, your 75 year old mother's house may not be

perfect, but that's not what caused your daughter's OCD. Her

condition may have been aggitated or triggered by the " mess " but we

all know that dirt happens! It's a *genetic* condition, and It's

No one's Fault. It's not your fault. It's not your daughter's

fault. (((lots of hugs)))

Your mother is probably from the old school that your

daughter's " behavior " is a result of a defiant child. I wish you

lots of luck in educating her, but it's going to be hard to change

her beliefs, especially at her age. It took a long time to get my

family members to believe that my son's contamination fears weren't

the result of a severely spoiled child. (he's the youngest too) In

fact, they still slip up occasionally and say I need to " spank " or

discipline him more often. Right! Don't you wish it were that

simple? A little time-out in his room, and *poof* no more OCD!!

Wow, I wish!!

Good luck, and call those doctors and bug the heck out of them for an

emergency appt. Keep us posted too!

Joni in VA

Mom of (11, OCD+TS+Moods), (19, ADHD) and (21)

Report post · October 16, 2002

Hi there, it sounds like you and your daughter have been through the wringer.

As you probably know, OCD is a waxing and waning disorder and additional

stress--such as the trip to Grandmas and the school year starting--can kick off

a waxing phase. My first thought is, you are so right to look around now for a

new psychiatrist. Any worth his/her salt will understand that during a crisis

phase it's possible that a patient will need to be seen more often or

unexpectedly and will need to be worked in. The regularly-scheduled

appointments are for medication checks etc., not for emergencies. I would be

calling the current psychiatrist's office daily asking for cancellation

appointments. You might want to call The Brain Institute (U of Fla

Gainesville)--there is a wonderful (IMO) doctor there named . If

that's too far or she's not taking new patients, you could ask for a referral in

your area.

Secondly, your daughter would benefit from Cognitive Behavior Therapy with

Exposure and Response Prevention. Usually this is done by a therapist, not a

psychiatrist, so many of our kids have two professionals involved in the

treatment of their OCD--one overseeing medications and one providing CBT/ERP.

This type of therapy is the only one that reduces/eliminates OCD obsessions and

compulsions, other types do not.

All the behaviors you mentioned in your post are classic OCD compulsions and

it's easy to see that OCD is taking up much of a's day. The personality

change is also pretty common since when our kids are having high symptoms, they

are tense, irritable and very uncomfortable. It's not unusual for them to lash

out or mouth off or otherwise act out of character when " triggered " i.e. someone

inadvertently interrupts an OCD ritual, or does something to set off an

obsessional thought. (Your daughter probably didn't speak kindly to the girl

who put her things on her desk because the girl's things were " contaminated " and

sparked anxiety in your daughter.) I don't have OCD but I'm more likely to say

or do things I otherwise wouldn't when I'm anxious, I think most people are like

this, and kids with OCD are anxious a lot and to a greater degree than

" normals " . The humming could be a tic, many OCD kids also have tics if not

full-blown Tourette syndrome. My own daughter spent a lot of time out in the

hallway as a preschooler for making noises (vocal tics) during story time.

I've wished too that teachers could have known my daughter before her OCD onset!

But even without that, they can learn about OCD, common obsessions and

compulsions, and take these into account during this worsening phase your

daughter is having. It sounds as though your daughter is getting punished a lot

for showing OCD symptoms at school, which adds to her stress and is not helpful

in the big picture--you can not punish OCD symptoms away. The OC Foundation is

a credible source of info and has many resources you might want to print out for

them to read: www.ocfoundation.org

SSRIs sometimes just quit working and this may be what has happened with your

daughter's Zoloft. Doctors may increase the dose when this happens (as yours

did) and/or add an augmenting med such as another SSRI or perhaps a med such as

Risperdal. But sometimes it's necessary to switch to a new SSRI.

HTH,

Kathy R. in Indiana

p.s. Yes we are a group of strangers, but ones who have " been there, done that "

when it comes to OCD in our kids and how that affects the child, schooling, and

the family in general. In a way we know more about each other than real-life

best friends do! :-)

----- Original Message -----

From: youcantalk2