Update on us/lookig for input

[Guest guest]

I don't write on this forum often but appreciate the fact that it is here to

read as I need it. Thanks to all those people who contribute to help those

of us in need. You may or may not remember me but I wanted to update you

all as to where we are now with OCD.

For the last year and a half my daughter Lilly has done very well on 50-75

mg of Zoloft. She wasn't completely symptom free but she was able to deal

with the obsessive thoughts that came her way without doing any compulsions.

She was able to recognize the fact that they were obsessive and move on.

She lived a pretty normal life enjoying her friends, animals, etc.

Over the last few months things have taken a turn for the worse. We upped

her Zoloft to 100 mg, waited a month, then 125 mg. Her doctor (regular

family dr.) did not want to prescribe more as the increase didn't seem to

make much difference, though it's sometimes hard to tell because her main

symptom is a feeling of unease which manifests itself in many various ways,

from getting in and out of bed, chair, car, brushing teeth again and again,

washing hands, asking reassurance questions, and then sometimes these things

aren't hard at all. It moves around but on the whole she is not better than

when she was on 75 mg imo and maybe worse.

This relapse has given her the drive to try therapy with a woman who

specialized in ocd in children and teens. Her name is Lee Fitzgibbons and

she has written a book called " how to help your child with ocd. " We still

need to fill out paperwork and return it to them. We hope to get in in

early October. It's an hour and a half drive but will be worth it if she

can help. There are physchologists closer who do erp but the only ones who

agreed to see her were men and it's important to her to have a woman

therapist. This is the first time she's agreed to get help. We went to a

psych a couple years ago and she refused to participate but he did help me

to help her and to understand ocd better.

It has been so difficult to watch her relapse. It makes her depressed and

angry and it makes me sad and frustrated. She knows what to do to combat it

but feels helpless to do so. I try to be supportive without participating

in her rituals but it's such a difficult balance. I am going to a therapist

on Monday alone to get some better ideas of where to draw the line. She

likes me to hand her her toothbrush and rinse it for her (repeatedly ) hand

her her clothes, answer her questions. I try to make limits on how often

I'll do these things.only once or twice but her need for me to do them keeps

increasing and when I don't it's not a pretty sight.

One night she was up from 3 am till 6 am getting in and out of bed and

wanting me to watch her do it and say it was normal. I ended up doing it at

ever increasing intervals (I mean I'd do it and then say she had to wait 20

minutes before I'd do it again, then longer and longer) which did not seem

to help. I'm not sure when to step back and allow it to get worse or to do

it because if she can't seem to work on that particular problem, is it

helping for me to place limits on how many times I'll participate?

Also, I'm wondering if it helps if she waits two hours before brushing her

teeth again if she knows in her mind she's just going to do it anyway before

she goes to bed. It seems like she gets past the worst of the anxiety but

its still a niggling feeling that she needs to do it again before she can

sleep so she brushes again which starts the whole anxiety process over again

and she can't stop again. Is the two hour wait just a waste of time if she

plans to do it again anyway and feels helpless to control it?

We talked last night about the fact that the increase in Zoloft doesn't seem

to be working and she said she'll try to go back to 100 mg and see what

happens. I was just reading on here that sometimes less is more..worried

about trying it in case it is actually doing something. Maybe without the

increase things would have gotten even worse than they are now??

Thanks for listening.

Shaw