Re: I'm new here.

[Guest guest]

Lori, welcome!

And wow, you're amazing, you have such a good grasp on OCD and even

the bipolar part with meds, etc.; and your description about your son

and all just hit home for me, and I'm sure others here.

My son (15) has dealt more with compulsions. But I wonder about

thoughts from just watching him. He'll never say he has any though;

I think I've got a " maybe " from him when asked if he is having any.

But, yes, when tired or stressed OCD can be worse. Bedtime can be

worse for some kids just due to no distractions from thoughts.

Bedtime was a nightmare for us at times due to compulsions; maybe

avoidance. My had to do things to " keep something bad from

happening to him " and also get a " just right " feeling. Anyway, just

getting him into bed, or rather ONto the bed, was tough at times.

After school time can be bad for some kids; holding back OCD at

school and then coming home and " letting it out. " I worried about

summer too with no distractions. For us it wasn't as bad as I

imagined but it wasn't clear sailing either!

There are many parents here who are dealing, or have dealt, with

the " bad thoughts " kind of OCD. I'm sure they will have lots of

suggestions and experiences to share! And also regarding the bipolar

issue where medication might trigger any tendency towards it.

My son is now in 9th grade. His OCD seemed to hit overnight

back in 6th grade. About 2 or 3 weeks after he began 6th grade.

Suddenly all these compulsions were there 24/7!! I knew that even

back in 3rd grade I had noted a " little OCD " - doing school work, he

would trace over come letters again and again, maybe erase and

rewrite one that looked perfectly fine. Back then I

thought " hmmm...a little OCD there! " After joining this group and

reading about OCD, I realized that all those questions he had always

been asking me, even before 3rd grade, can be considered part of

OCD. " Reassurance " questions was a new term for me.

Well, I'm so glad you joined this group, it has been my BEST support

since our OCD journey began! Please keep us updated on how you and

your son are doing and how treatment is going. And always feel free

to vent or worry here anytime!

> Hello~ I just joined this list last night and thought I'd

introduce myself. My name is Lori and my son was just diagnosed this

past September with OCD. He is 7 years old and in the first grade.

He doesn't have any compulsions exactly except maybe that I think he

has a " need " to tell me when he is having intrusive thoughts. He'll

pull me away from people to whisper to me that he is having

thoughts. He has 3 pretty regular thoughts with a couple others that

creep in from time to time. Mostly he says his head tells him he

doesn't love us or that he wants to hurt us and then there is the one

that he wants to smoke. He will break into tears and grab his head

and beg me to make the thoughts stop. He tells me " I would never

hurt you and I'll never smoke and I love you to the rainbows. " It's

[Guest guest]

Hi Lori,

Welcome! My prayers and thoughts are with you. I know it is very trying

and upsetting even for the most patient, level-headed, understanding

parents. I too have a first grade son, , with OCD. He was diagnosed

last year in October. My husband and I noticed some unusual behaviors and

we pretty much knew it was OCD, as my mother has the diagnosis.

Unfortunately my son has had some issues at school, but in general he is

doing pretty well there. We just officially put in place an accomodation

plan. The school has been making accomodations all along (i.e., sits near

teacher, gets extra help as needed, can finish work at home, etc.) but we

wanted to get it all in writing. We were able to get this without even

saying he has OCD. The doctor just identified as having a significant

anxiety disorder. We will say it is OCD if needed, but for now we didn't

because we were unsure of the school staff's knowledge and we're concerned

about judgments people may make. Perhaps we are being shortsighted here,

but so far this has worked fine for us.

Like your son and many others, my son's symptoms seem to flare up more when

he is sick or stressed. Unlike your son, summer was a great time for .

He had a terrific time at day camp and the counselors said he was a

pleasure! Of course camp is much less stressful than school and the demands

at camp are nothing like at school.

Also like your son and a lot of others, my son has a very hard time if he

doesn't do things perfectly. It's heartbreaking when he calls himself

stupid. He also has difficulty losing in any kind of game. But I have seen

him improve here, so I'm hopeful that as he matures this will improve even

more.

I also wanted to tell you that we too struggled with the medication

decision. started seeing a psychologist last October, and in May we

went to see the Psychiatrist just to talk and get a first appointment in (we

had to wait about 2 months for that initial appt.). We were very close to

starting medication and we decided to wait until the school year ended.

Then the summer was so great! When school started this year, did

surprisingly well- we were shocked because we thought 1st grade would be so

much more stressful as now he was going to school for a full day

(Kindergarten is only 1/2 in our district). The first few months went well

but by late Nov. he started having some difficulties again. So we started

up with the psychologist again and went to the psychiatrist about a month

ago. We decided to go ahead and try the medication-otherwise we would never

know if it could help him, and we of course wanted to see him happy and

feeling good. The doctor started him on Prozac on a very low dose just to

make sure he didn't have any adverse effects. Thankfully, today the medical

mantra is to " start low and go slow. " After about 3 weeks (last Friday) I

called the doc and said had no negative side effects and seemed to be

somewhat better (in terms of certain behaviors) too, so he said to up

's dose and bring him in about 3 more weeks and we would see from

there. Of course we would ultimately hope that he can go off medication and

our doc said he would like to see him on a 10 month course and then try to

have him come off, but I know the reality is that he may always need

medication. In 's case, we haven't truly done any real CBT/ERP

(recommended behavioral therapy) because his symptoms are so sporadic and

inconsistent. The psychologist is trying but is very closed mouthed

about it and has recently said that " the bad game " (our name for it) doesn't

really bother him too much (which is great but I wonder if he is being

totally truthful). I guess we will see as time goes on what will work best

for him.

Anyway, I just wanted to end by saying that your son is lucky that he has

such a caring and resourceful mom! It sounds like your doing all you can to

help your son, and that is all any of us can do!

Maddy in PA

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[Guest guest]

Lori

Welcome to the group, its not uncommon for ocd to be just intrusive thoughts

with the

compulsion needing to tell. My 17 yr old has obsessive thought type ocd

the wanting to kill self and parents is a pretty common theme. Since I am a

Lori

spelled exactly the same way I guess we will need to use last initials or

states when we post so we dont get mixed up. welcome again! Lori T. in NJ