RE: new here, med and obtrusive thought question

[Guest guest]

Hi, Kim. There are a lot of people on this site who have children who have

successfully gone off of medication. There are also a lot of people who have

no desire to get their kids off of medication! Four months isn't a very long

time to take meds and you could actually still be working on finding the right

med/dose. My youngest daughter, , has been on medication for almost four

years and my oldest daughter, Hannah, has been taking it for two years. It

took almost a year to get Hannah the right med/dose. There has been no talk of

taking either of them off. As for compulsions, it is my understanding that

people don't act on their compulsions but will sometimes do something else

instead--when my older daughter had " bad thoughts " she would pinch herself to

make

it stop. I think that some kids are very impulsive but that can be a

medication side effect too. I think that is right when she said that if

your

child is telling you about the thoughts it is a good sign. It helps for them

to know that it is the OCD giving them the thoughts and that it isn't their

fault. Does your daughter do any kind of therapy? How old is your daughter?

This site is a great source of information and support--I don't know what I

would do without it. Welcome and please post again. Kelley in NV

[Guest guest]

Hi Kim,

My son also had these same kind of thoughts and it was very scarey

for all of us especially him.He never acted on any of what he called

bad thoughts as is the case with most of our children.If your child

is sharing these thoughts with you thats a pretty good sign that she

does not want to hurt herself.As for the meds I found that my son

would go through flare ups with his OCD and then it would just go

away for a while (this was even before he was on meds).The meds help

now but he still experiences flare ups especially in the spring.A lot

of people on this board know a lot about CBT ,we have not been lucky

enough to find a therapist who does it so I read about it and it

helps my son during rough times.He can now say I had a bad thought

but it's just my OCD and he bosses it out of his mind.I'm sure you'll

get a lot more input from the many wise people here.Hope this helped

a little.~~

> Hi, I am new to all of this and I have a couple of questions, if

you

> don't mind. I am wondering if anyone has kids who are successfully

> able to go off medication and still control their symptoms. So far,

> my daughter's Zoloft works great, but for only so long and then it

> stops. She is up to 150 mg of Zoloft and right now she is good

again,

> but I wonder for how long. She has only been on it 4 1/2 months so

> far. Also, I am wondering if a kid has obtrusive thoughts would

they

> ever act on them, if the OCD is not being controlled? My daughter

was

> having obtrusive thoughts about wanting to get seriously injured.

> She said the thought just kept coming into her mind over and over.

> This has stopped within the last week or so, after her last med

> increase, but it still worries me. Thank you, I would appreciate

any

> feedback. Kim

[Guest guest]

Hi Kim, welcome!

How old is your daughter?

If you can find a therapist experienced in treating OCD who uses CBT

(Cognitive Behavioral Therapy) and ERP (Exposure & Response

Prevention), there's a good chance your daughter can learn to control

her OCD and come off medication. Some people try the therapy alone,

but often medication is needed in the beginning to help with the

anxiety so that they can effectively participate in therapy.

I have a son, 15, who is on Celexa for his OCD. We've no therapist

near so have been on our own (except for the great support and

suggestions from this group) and he's doing much better now (it all

began way back before he turned 12). I'm sure things would have gone

along much faster (at least I hope!) with a good therapist and

willing to participate.

Those terrible thoughts that can go along with OCD are never acted

on, so rest assured there. That doesn't mean the sufferer isn't

feeling huge anxiety/fear/worry about it all though. I'm glad the

Zoloft seems to be helping her in that area.

My son mostly had compulsions. However, watching him these years, I

believe there's some type of " thoughts " going on. He, to this day,

just does not want to talk about it. If I ask him directly, I might

get a shrug or maybe a nod or an " I don't know " or " maybe. " SIGH!

Anyway, he's said that everything has to do with the fear that

something bad will happen to him and he needs a " just right "

feeling. I'm glad your daughter is able to talk to you about all

this, I envy you there!!

Have you looked at the OCD Foundation website at

http://ocfoundation.org as there's lots of info there.

Also the " articles " at this website are good:

http://www.homestead.com/westsuffolkpsych/Articles.html

Hope this helps a bit. There are lots of parents here whose kids

have dealt with or are dealing with this type of OCD, I'm sure they

can offer some insight/experience with this!

single mom, 3 sons

, 15, with OCD, dysgraphia and Aspergers

, 15, twin (not identical)

Randall, 19

> Hi, I am new to all of this and I have a couple of questions, if

you

> don't mind. I am wondering if anyone has kids who are successfully

> able to go off medication and still control their symptoms. So far,

> my daughter's Zoloft works great, but for only so long and then it

> stops. She is up to 150 mg of Zoloft and right now she is good

again,

[Guest guest]

I so feel for you. My daughter had " bad thoughts " when her OCD hit

almost 2 years ago. She also had violent thoughts (and sexual), but in

her case the violence was directed towards her younger brother mainly.

She would always say that her brain was making her think those bad

thoughts. She was extremely distraught about the thoughts, because she

knew she didn't want to hurt anybody, but her " brain kept telling " her

to think bad thoughts. At her worst, I ended up taking her to the

hospital (before I knew it was OCD), because I was afraid she would hurt

herself or her brother.

She has come a long way since then, and I have come a long way since

then (meaning I have learned a lot about OCD). She has had only two

periods (lasting about 1-2 weeks) of bad thoughts in the last two years.

While I know now that I do not need to fear that my daughter will cause

any physical harm to anyone, including herself, those periods of bad

thoughts have been, by far, the worst days of my long 34 year life.

Those thoughts she was having did not belong in such a young mind; I so

feared that she had lost her sweet innocence and would never be the same

again. Well, I feel like she is my sweet girl again. She does have

some other OCD quirks, but they are nothing compared to the bad

thoughts.

My daughter takes 25 mg of Zoloft. From what I am reading on these

postings, it seems like that dosage is on the low side. I am starting

to wonder if the Zoloft has helped or if those periods of bad thoughts

was just replaced by other " o " s and " c " s.

Anyway, I just wanted to let you know that I feel for you. And I, like

you, wonder if someday my daughter will go off the meds. But for now, I

am just going to appreciate the fact that there are meds that can help

our children...

LKS

new here, med and obtrusive thought question

Hi, I am new to all of this and I have a couple of questions, if you

don't mind. I am wondering if anyone has kids who are successfully

able to go off medication and still control their symptoms. So far,

my daughter's Zoloft works great, but for only so long and then it

stops. She is up to 150 mg of Zoloft and right now she is good again,

but I wonder for how long. She has only been on it 4 1/2 months so

far. Also, I am wondering if a kid has obtrusive thoughts would they

ever act on them, if the OCD is not being controlled? My daughter was

having obtrusive thoughts about wanting to get seriously injured.

She said the thought just kept coming into her mind over and over.

This has stopped within the last week or so, after her last med

increase, but it still worries me. Thank you, I would appreciate any

feedback. Kim

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