Re: What started the OCD - my turn

January 12, 2011

When our daughter was 13yrs, our neighbor died (he was a good family friend

& she was close to him), she witnessed the paramedics carrying him on a

stretcher to the ambulance, stopping in the drive way to perform CPR for a

minute... loading him into the ambulance - it was quite disturbing even for

the adults present. I tried to pull her back into the house but she refused

to go.

A month or so later, my father passed away so I flew to CA to be with my

mom for a couple weeks. That's when my husband started noticing the

handwashing. It spiraled out of control from there. When I got home, we would

literally have to physically pull her away from a sink as she yelled " I'm not

done, wait! "

We realized fairly quickly (Internet research wasn't hard - search once on

teenagers and excessive handwashing and OCD is all over the place).

In retrospect, we then recalled issues from her past that screamed OCD:

1st grade teacher told us she was instant on using the bathroom JUST before

walking the class door (go to library or art, etc) and had to be THE LAST

person to do so... to the point it disrupted the class. Later in her school

years, my husband realized that she could not decisively answer a question

about what she had just read - even if it was a simple paragraph with

straight out facts about something (and she was an " A " student), but she

constantly doubted herself even though she knew the answer was right, she still

questioned it.

I am saving all the responses I get to the " How it started " email... I want

to read them all again after folks stop responding.

LT

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