How do you get your child to want to fight ocd?

[Guest guest]

What do you do when your child has no desire to fight ocd? My child

got better from his ocd once with celexa. Then it started getting

worse again until it seemed that celexa was no longer doing anything

for him. We thought celexa had quit working so his doctor took him

off of it. When he came off we found out that celexa had been doing

alot for him but his ocd had gotten much worse. Ocd completely took

him over. Now after almost 4 months and 50mg of prozac he's doing

much better. He's back in school full time, making a few friends,

doesn't want to die anymore, and can accually forget about his ocd if

he's having alot of fun. He still does do alot of compulsions though

and tries to avoid things that he thinks will set him off. He will

soon start therapy. When he got better the first time he tried very

hard all on his own to fight compulsions and was very proud when he

succeeded. This time however, he won't even consider trying to fight

them. I think that this has just gone on so long that he's just

tired of trying. Has anyone here had thier child give up the desire

to fight it and how did you get them to do it? From what his doctor

says, and I've seen it too, it only makes him worse if you try to

push him into it.

[Guest guest]

Hi ,

It probably depends on how much it's interfering with his life right

now. I recently asked in another OCD group about getting to a

comfortable level with OCD, as I felt this is where is right

now.

I know with in the past, my pushing him didn't help either.

I think in our case that sooner or later OCD will get a bit worse

again, then will have to put forth an effort.

Here's a response I got from Dr. Claiborn where I asked about

being " comfortable " with OCD. Hope this helps a bit:

" It is not unusual for people with OCD to get to a point where the

compulsions don't seem to be that big a deal and they would rather

not do the hard work involved in changing things.

They might say they don't mind doing a little extra checking, washing

etc. since it makes things feel better and then they don't worry as

much about what ever.

At this point I might say it is a trade off. The person can accept a

level of symptoms and the time it takes or interference it produces

or they can work on improving control of the OCD.

It is in part a matter of deciding if the way they are living is

acceptable or if it is worth it to them to fight the OCD. We all make

decisions about a lot of areas of our life that involve the same sort

of trade offs. The caveat is that the individual needs to recognize

that OCD that is accepted has a tendency to grow. "

Keep us updated on how things are going!

> What do you do when your child has no desire to fight ocd? My

child

> got better from his ocd once with celexa. Then it started getting

> worse again until it seemed that celexa was no longer doing

anything

> for him. We thought celexa had quit working so his doctor took him

[Guest guest]

Hi , I do think dealing with a problem like OCD that may keep coming

back makes it tough for kids to keep up a fighting spirit. My daughter went

through several periods of this--OCD was just so big and strong that

fighting back seemed pointless to her at times.

She especially had this problem when OCD staged a big comeback after a

period of low symptoms and easy boss-back wins. Once it was back to a

" reasonable " level her can-do attitude rebounded, perhaps your son's will

too.

Another problem we experienced was her inability to " get " the idea of

working on exposures by making slow and steady effort. She has this problem

(still, at 10) whether the issue is working on a certain OCD compulsion, or

something totally unrelated such as working by increments on a long-term

project for school. Very black and white, now or never, all or nothing

thinking which might be an OCD thing or just a young-kid perspective.

Your son may gain a better attitude under the guidance of an expert

therapist, as my child did. Since her homework assignments were crafted by

him to be doable yet move her up another rung toward bossing a target

compulsion completely, she experienced success which was motivating to her.

My daughter's therapist kept notes and would periodically bring out her old

hierarchies and maps to point out all the things she had bossed away and all

the things she had taken back control of from OCD. This made her progress

more real to her, since she tended to forget her successes and focus much

more on the OCD that was still bothering her.

Good luck with the therapy and I hope your son experiences some significant

relief soon.

Kathy R. in Indiana

p.s. Pushing didn't work here either, but plainly telling dd I wanted her

to work on bossing back OCD and would reward this hard work with toys or

other prizes she wanted, helped to get her off the starting block. This

idea rubs some parents the wrong way, it did me too at first, but it worked

well.

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

> What do you do when your child has no desire to fight ocd? My child

> got better from his ocd once with celexa. Then it started getting

> worse again until it seemed that celexa was no longer doing anything

> for him. We thought celexa had quit working so his doctor took him

> off of it. When he came off we found out that celexa had been doing

> alot for him but his ocd had gotten much worse. Ocd completely took

> him over. Now after almost 4 months and 50mg of prozac he's doing

> much better. He's back in school full time, making a few friends,

> doesn't want to die anymore, and can accually forget about his ocd if

> he's having alot of fun. He still does do alot of compulsions though

> and tries to avoid things that he thinks will set him off. He will

> soon start therapy. When he got better the first time he tried very

> hard all on his own to fight compulsions and was very proud when he

> succeeded. This time however, he won't even consider trying to fight

> them. I think that this has just gone on so long that he's just

> tired of trying. Has anyone here had thier child give up the desire

> to fight it and how did you get them to do it? From what his doctor

> says, and I've seen it too, it only makes him worse if you try to

> push him into it.