Re: Worse in summer?

[Guest guest]

Hi ,

We have experienced the same as Kathy R. with our daughter. The first

years after her onset of OCD, summers were very hard. We tried to keep her busy,

but she was always so fearful that she couldn't attend most summertime

activities. The last couple of years she was in back-to-back activities all

summer -

a large variety to keep her preoccupied and tired. This year she is only doing

her gymnastics (she is on a team and practices two mornings a week for three

hours each) and is doing well, so far. These days we have more problems with

depression creeping in over vacations than OCD. Her therapist makes her chart

her moods daily and watch for the signs that she is getting depressed :

overeating, watching too much t.v., etc. She does not deal at all well with

unstructured time, but I'm hoping this summer she will learn not to fall apart

when

faced with it. She has said that she wants to work on this, so we are letting

her

(yikes).

Some children find the lack of structure easier than the stress of

school, but I think the majority of kids with anxiety disorders find it rather

scary. My non-OCD child is never happier than when he's on vacation, while my

OCDer

is counting the days until school starts again!

in NV, mom to Annie (11, going into 7th grade) with OCD, ADHD and TS

[Guest guest]

Hi,

I just wanted to let you know that my sons OCD's have never been as bad as this

summer.

Michele from Ohio, Mommy of Trenton 6 with BP, PDD, ODD, OCD, ADD, SID,

Dyspraxia, and seizure disorder

Meds: 1200 Lithium, 5 mg. Abilify, 3 mgs. Risperdal, .20 mg. Clonidine,

Synthroid

First Grade on IEP with one on one aide

Other children: Chucky 16, 14, le 12 and is 5

Husband is

Worse in summer?

I was wondering if anyone finds that their child's OCD is worse

during the summer months when school is out. Our 11 y/o dd has been

so good at doing her ERP exercises since January, and while the

progress has been extremely slow and difficult, she has made some

good strides during that time (She has mostly contamination

issues). Now that summer is here and she is spending more time at

home (altho we have kept up a steady dose of some outside

activities/classes, etc, because she does much better having that

structure), she is now having much greater difficulty touching some

items that she was doing well with just a few weeks ago. This

deterioration has been in the context of her continuing to do daily

ERP (which for us is only 15 minutes a day, but it's been a big step

over her previous refusal to participate at all. It seems like

summer has been more difficult for her in previous years as well.

Thanks for any insight.

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[Guest guest]

Hello , yes my child's OCD used to be much worse in the summer due I

think to less scheduling and more unstructured time which made her a sitting

duck for the thoughts. Even when my daughter's OCD was severe she still was

relatively unbothered in her fast-paced school classroom with all its

distractions.

The first three summers following her onset I scheduled her wall-to-wall

with library activities, day camps, vacation bible school, anything I could

find handy and free or not too expensive. An added bonus was that she was

tired every night so went fairly quickly to sleep, a prime time for

obsessing that made evenings and bedtime a nightly ordeal. She would panic

with a whole day ahead of her with nothing planned. She was like this too

over long school breaks.

As she got better generally though, this was less necessary and last summer

and so far this summer her symptoms have not increased once school was over.

I do notice though that for a week or so, she makes heavy use of TV and

video games, craft projects and etc. for distraction until she settles in.

I don't think she's experiencing an upsurge of thoughts/symptoms anymore,

but I think she still fears she may if she's not busy all the time.

HTH,

Kathy R. in Indiana

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

> I was wondering if anyone finds that their child's OCD is worse

> during the summer months when school is out. Our 11 y/o dd has been

> so good at doing her ERP exercises since January, and while the

> progress has been extremely slow and difficult, she has made some

> good strides during that time (She has mostly contamination

> issues). Now that summer is here and she is spending more time at

> home (altho we have kept up a steady dose of some outside

> activities/classes, etc, because she does much better having that

> structure), she is now having much greater difficulty touching some

> items that she was doing well with just a few weeks ago. This

> deterioration has been in the context of her continuing to do daily

> ERP (which for us is only 15 minutes a day, but it's been a big step

> over her previous refusal to participate at all. It seems like

> summer has been more difficult for her in previous years as well.

> Thanks for any insight.

[Guest guest]

Hi -

Interesting you should bring this up. I, too, have noticed an

increase in symptoms in Anne recently...she was up in the middle of

the night two nights ago worrying that the cramping she was having

was going to cause her to vomit...she hasn't had *that* fear for

quite some time. Hard to know if it's summer and lack of structure,

less sleep than usual, the new puppy, meds pooping out (I sure hope

not), or, most likely, a combination of these factors. I'm keeping

a close eye on things, tho' !

Hope you're having a relatively OCD-light day

Blessings-

(Ohio) Anne (13)--- In