Re: 's OCD

[Guest guest]

Welcome to the group. )

The best course of treatment, is the correct therapy. It is called CBT

(cognitive behavioral therapy) and ERP (exposure and response prevention). It

is the most effective way to fight OCD, and has been shown to make positive,

permanent changes to the brain. It can give him tools to use for life.

Therapists who are trained in knowing how to use it can be hard to find, but

worth the effort.

Usually medication is brought in as an assist to the therapy, if they are unable

to confront their OCD using ERP. Often that can cause the anxiety to rise

(temporarily) and that is where the meds can help. If they are too anxious,

they may be unable to do the therapy. In our son's case, with his last relapse,

he needed the meds to even get off of the sofa and out of the house, to get to a

therapist. He was nonfunctional at the time, but now has his life back and is

living the best life he can.

There are some natural things that some in here have used successfully.

Inositol is one. There are also some products by Native Remedies some have used

that have helped. They seem to work for some and are worth a try.

Glad you found us. If you have any questions, feel free to ask. Many in here

are happy to share information and things that have worked for them.

BJ

>

> Hi, I new to this group. My 14 year old has been diagnosed with OCD. We've

always known there was something different but his " symptoms " would change and

get better. We used to think it was habits. Now that he has hit the teenage

years, the OCD is coming out in full force. He has to check every plug 3 times,

he will not eat anything with cheese listed as an ingredient (you should see our

pizzas), constantly asking questions even though he knows the answer, etc. We do

not want to use medication, at least not yet. He feels better now that he knows

that there is a physical reason for his thoughts and actions. Is there a vitamin

or dietary supplement that can help with the OCD? He plays music and that seems

to calm him more than anything else. He can get on stage and play piano and sing

in front of 300-400 people and it doesn't bother him at all but off stage,

sometimes, he is a nervous wreck.

>

[Guest guest]

Hi, welcome!! Well, first, I'm glad the OCD isn't messing up his enjoyment of

music and playing and singing.

So are you finding that new things are popping up with OCD now, as opposed to

the older " habits " ? What is he asking questions about, I'm curious if it

relates to him in any way as so many kids can have worries about getting sick or

germs, etc. Hope his food list continues to stay only cheese (is that recent?)

and doesn't grow. Sigh, my son (now 20) at one time had made all these

" promises to God " about not eating certain foods, ingredients. Impulsive, just

pop in the head type promises. And it was a scary time! So glad he managed to

get past that!

BJ mentioned some alternative things to try, the inositol powder and then Native

Remedies brand products. We used inositol powder back in middle school and it

worked well, but we tried it again (and at higher doses too) this last year and

had no luck. So it's just sort of a 50/50 chance if you try it, it might work,

might not. Others have found it helpful, then some not. Some parents have said

that the Native Remedies products PureCalm and MindSoothe (believe those are the

2) have helped. With inositol powder, brand names can vary (that's fine, no

particular brand to use) and it's MUCH cheaper to buy it online. You can search

thru past posts here for " inositol " or the word " Native " and should turn up some

past posts...if Yahoo has fixed our search feature (just remembered that, it was

only showing results back to Feb. or March I think, nothing more recent; Yahoo

is supposed to fix it!).

single mom, 3 sons

, 20, with OCD, dysgraphia and Aspergers

>

> Hi, I new to this group. My 14 year old has been diagnosed with OCD. We've

always known there was something different but his " symptoms " would change and

get better. We used to think it was habits. Now that he has hit the teenage

years, the OCD is coming out in full force. He has to check every plug 3 times,

he will not eat anything with cheese listed as an ingredient (you should see our

pizzas), constantly asking questions even though he knows the answer, etc. We do

not want to use medication, at least not yet. He feels better now that he knows

that

[Guest guest]

Thanks for all of the suggestions. I intend on trying the Inositol or the

Mindsoothe. Usually the OCD is not bad. We're finding new things slowly come up.

We noticed the plug situation about a year ago. We had to confront him about it.

He was going three times a night to check. We then lowered it to two, and then

one. He is slowly stopping himself from going upstairs everynight to check to

make sure everything is unplugged and all of the lights are turned out. It had

gotten so bad that we figured out he was taking pictures and looking at them to

make sure he had done it.

As far as his food, it seems to be only cheese. Again this started last year. He

doesn't like cheese which is fine, but now he will read the ingredients before

he eats anything. I've gotten to where I throw the packages away before he can

see them.

I think his music has not only helped but is better because of his OCD. He can

hear the music once and go upstairs and can have the song figured out in one

night. We have enrolled him in ROTC this year-he will be a freshman. My oldest

son is the CO and very understanding. was worried about it but he has been

in Air-Rifle Camp this week and loves it. I figured it would give him one class

that was very structured and safe.

> >

> > Hi, I new to this group. My 14 year old has been diagnosed with OCD. We've

always known there was something different but his " symptoms " would change and

get better. We used to think it was habits. Now that he has hit the teenage

years, the OCD is coming out in full force. He has to check every plug 3 times,

he will not eat anything with cheese listed as an ingredient (you should see our

pizzas), constantly asking questions even though he knows the answer, etc. We do

not want to use medication, at least not yet. He feels better now that he knows

that

>