New member intro - mom and son with OCD (woo hoo!)

[Guest guest]

Hi everybody. I'm le. My 11yo son and I both have OCD. My son also has

diagnoses of generalized anxiety disorder, nonverbal learning disability, and

dyslexia/dysgraphia/dyscalculia. (Whew!) He was diagnosed with everything

except the OCD at age 7, and was diagnosed with OCD at around age 9.

Since I've had OCD since childhood, it wasn't a shock or a big deal when he

started having obsessions. He doesn't have any physical rituals. He has fears

related to contamination/poisoning/serious illness, and he talks to me about

them and asks for reassurance (once or twice a day).

My mom and dad are both germaphobes (not me though!), and I think the content of

my son's OCD came from my mom's conversations (read: lectures) about the

importance of hand washing. He doesn't worry about colds or even the flu. He

worries about cholera and stuff like that. He worries about being poisoned if

he absentmindedly touches a non-food object to his mouth (like a pen lid). I've

always telling him not to let the OCD win and that it's much easier to stop new

rituals from starting than it is to stop exisiting rituals. I think Zoloft is

helping, although if we go above 50mg, it triggers moodiness and impulsivity.

My poor husband! lol He just isn't an anxiety kind of guy, so he gets annoyed

with all the worries and rigidity. Since it's a family trait on my side, we can

laugh about it. We embrace our quirkiness!

We've been homeschooling since my son started 1st grade. We did the school thing

(with an IEP), but it was too stressful for my rule-following, sensory

issues-having boy. He begged me to homeschool him, and it's been 5 years now.

We love it.

Anyone else here a parent with OCD of a kid with OCD? Does anyone know what the

likelihood of inheriting OCD is?

le