Hi to the New Members!

[Guest guest]

We've had a lot of new members this past month! Welcome to our group. It's

fine if you want to just lurk/read (I do that in other yahoo groups myself) but

do feel free to jump in to ask anything or just share what you're going through.

A lot of sympathetic ears here.

If you're new to OCD, a good place to start reading is at the OCD Foundation

website: http://ocfoundation.org

There you can read about what OCD is, the therapy for OCD and about the

different medications to treat it. There is also a " search " function where you

can try to locate local help, therapy, for your child. Only those who ask to be

listed on the website are there, so don't give up hope if you don't see anyone

listed near you. You can post a message here with a location to see if any

member here knows of someone near where you live.

Also, when you joined you should have received a letter with some basic

information about PANDAS OCD and directing you to more info to read in the FILES

section of our group. Feel free to ask more questions if you have any.

Regarding this group, don't feel out of place if you don't read any recent posts

that seem to relate to your child. My son began with OCD in 6th grade,

and though a few behaviors were the type I may read about here or in books, most

of them weren't. But they were still " OCD. " I just had the kid with the really

" weird " OCD! He had a lot of compulsions, rituals. Some mental stuff going on

too, I could tell from watching him. He avoided things, afraid he'd get stuck

or trigger OCD.

It affected us all here at home (me the mom, and his 2 brothers) and everything

at school. Really, I thought his IQ was sinking low, my formerly very smart son

seemed to be disappearing. Rough times. But we survived (yay!) and he got

better.

Unfortunately, he had OCD return middle of 11th grade in a new way. Bad

thoughts, all related to religion/God, which is the type of OCD called

" scrupulosity. " And now at age 22, he still has that. Refuses meds all these

years. But he has still managed (how, I really don't know) and is presently in

his last year at UNC-Chapel Hill. He also has the diagnosis of Aspergers

Syndrome (on the autism spectrum); not obvious to everyone, could call it " mild "

however it isn't mild in some areas (like being able to drive at age 22).

So that's a bit about our story. The very short version.

Again, welcome,

(Co-Moderator)