Re: feedback on pros/cons of books

[Guest guest]

Timely post! I have a 6 yr old son with OCD. We just started seeing a

therapist for CBT. So far he likes her but doesn't want to discuss his rituals

with her, or with any of us. He constantly wipes off his body after coming in

contact with other people or objects. I bought What to do When Your Brain Gets

Stuck, by Dawn Huebner. I think it could be terrific... But tonight my son

shut down in the first chapter. He doesn't want to hear anything else about OCD

now. He is clearly ashamed and embarrassed despite our loving support. I'm

hoping he'll let me read with him more, possibly for some reward. I'm also

hoping the therapist can break through. Anyway, the book itself is

well-regarded, and I'd say better for slightly older kids than my own.

>

> I am considering giving my OCD son a book on OCD to read, but it concerns me

that his OCD will latch on to the negative in what he reads and cause him to

have a new set of things to obsess over. If you had a child read a book about

OCD would you please share your positive or negative comments with me? Thanks.

>

[Guest guest]

Hi,my daughter is 6 1/2 years old.I also got the book " What to do when your brain

gets stuck " I had to order it from the bookstore and just got it yesterday.My

husband and I both read it and we hope it will help our daughter.There is a book

that is a story called " Mr.Worry " we got it from our local library.I read it to

our daughter and she seemed to like the book.There is also another book called

" Blink Blink Clop Clop Why do we do things we can't stop " It is about OC Flea and

farm animals.It was the first book that we read to her.I have told our daughter

that there are other kids that have ocd and I think this has helped her.During

the summer she told me " I am strange I do things that other kids do not do " We are

seeing a therapist to work on exposure and response.Have you seen the

book " Saving Sammy " Sammy had ocd caused by strep even though he never had s/s of

strep.The Md that treated him is located in Marlton NJ-phone # .We

have a appt with

Dr.Nicolaides in November to rule out Pandas.Even if our daughter does not have

Pandas then at least we will know,and also I think that Dr.Nicolaides will be

able to tell us how we can best help our daughter.(She does do phone conferences

also)We are fortunate because her office is about 2 hours from us.If you would

like to contact us we are on facebook under Lingenfelter in Pa.Maybe our

daughter could write to your son and it would help both of them so they don't

feel so alone.Take care,Steph L

Subject: Re: feedback on pros/cons of books

To:

Date: Friday, October 2, 2009, 11:01 PM

 

Timely post! I have a 6 yr old son with OCD. We just

started seeing a therapist for CBT. So far he likes her but doesn't want to

discuss his rituals with her, or with any of us. He constantly wipes off his

body after coming in contact with other people or objects. I bought What to do

When Your Brain Gets Stuck, by Dawn Huebner. I think it could be terrific...

But tonight my son shut down in the first chapter. He doesn't want to hear

anything else about OCD now. He is clearly ashamed and embarrassed despite our

loving support. I'm hoping he'll let me read with him more, possibly for some

reward. I'm also hoping the therapist can break through. Anyway, the book

itself is well-regarded, and I'd say better for slightly older kids than my own.

>

> I am considering giving my OCD son a book on OCD to read, but it concerns me

that his OCD will latch on to the negative in what he reads and cause him to

have a new set of things to obsess over. If you had a child read a book about

OCD would you please share your positive or negative comments with me? Thanks.

>

[Guest guest]

Hello, Steph! I'll definitely look into those other books you mentioned. I

guess we both received the " what to do when your brain gets stuck " book on the

same day! What sort of rituals/compulsions does your daughter have? Just

wondering if my son would relate to other rituals that he does not have -- like

handwashing, apologizing, etc. It would be interesting for him to talk with

your daughter. We live on Long Island, but go to Philadelphia frequently for

family. He's often difficult to follow on phone conversations. I can also

mention that I had OCD myself as a child. As a teen I was able to comletely

suppress the outward rituals (wiping off touches, just like my son! As well as

blinking/grimacing to ward off bad events, tapping an even number of time,

entering and exiting rooms the same way). I'm sure my wife would be able to

point out some minor OCD behavior now, but it was very troubling for me as a

kid. I did not tell my parents, and they do not recall me having it. My sister

and friends would see it, but I hid it well. And by the way, I am totally fine

today. I am a physician (not a psychiatrist), happily married with these two

great kids. I'll contact you on Facebook.

Matt

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> > I am considering giving my OCD son a book on OCD to read, but it concerns me

that his OCD will latch on to the negative in what he reads and cause him to

have a new set of things to obsess over. If you had a child read a book about

OCD would you please share your positive or negative comments with me? Thanks.

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[Guest guest]

At the time we figured out that my daughter had OCD she was ten. We read

some books about it and talked about it and she was glad to know what it was

and that she wasn't crazy. Of course right now she is 13 and her ocd is

pretty bad and she's feeling like sheIS crazy. I'm praying that the

medication change and therapy will bring her some peace. Knowing what it

was definitely was helpful though.

[Guest guest]

We rode this train for a long time - worrying that exposure to books or other

children would make it worse. We found that there were two sides to this,

during the worst of times:

* Learning about a new " thing " that was directly related to her current

obsession, could definitely make it pick up that new worry.

* Learning about an unrelated worry (so dd8 worried about germs, but not

" just right OCD " ) would not do anything for her. In fact, I'd have to really

related it back to her own obession for her to understand it.

Read " What to do when your brain gets stuck " by yourself first. Personally,

most of these worries were pretty low key - for our daughter, she was way beyond

this level of worry. But she was THRILLED ot learn that other kids had similar

concerns. Same thing with meeting other kids - the normalization of OCD greatly

outweighed any other small concerns that she'd pick up.

And most importantly, for ERP therapy to work really well, normalization and

externalizing OCD is really important. I remember dd8 (then 6), getting the

giggles during " Mr. Worry " when he thought his mom could be an alien. It really

helped to see how irrational a worry could be. Small steps along the path to

health.

All my best - in NC.

>

> I am considering giving my OCD son a book on OCD to read, but it concerns me

that his OCD will latch on to the negative in what he reads and cause him to

have a new set of things to obsess over. If you had a child read a book about

OCD would you please share your positive or negative comments with me? Thanks.

>