Any advice?

[Guest guest]

Is anyone within this forum from Australia? If so have you found any

useful, worthwhile treatments? I am from melbourne. Alternatively is

there any ground breaking areas being achieved overseas? I did read

something about stem cells in china from another mother in here, but

can not find anything more to do with it? Has anyone had any success

with alternative therapies- eg. accupuncture, naturopathy etc. thanks

so much for your help with these issues.

Beth

Torin 10mths PMG - yet to get exact diagnosis regarding type etc,

Dillon 2.5 yrs

[Guest guest]

For some reason it is common for flare ups to occur in the Spring. This is a

longshot here: Does your child have any seasonal allergies that may be

undetected or untreated? I give my dd an over the counter allergy pill in the

spring and it makes a difference for her. I have noticed that if my kids are

sick, their OCD flares also. Might be worth trying. Also, the nature of OCD is

that its a cyclical mental illness. It comes and goes.

Hope this helps,

Becky in N.D.

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> Hello, I had written earlier this week about my 7-year-old son who is having a

major OCD flare up (typically in the spring.) It is getting so bad, he cries

every day before school, and is now crying through out the day at school! I

want to take him to a therapist that specializes in treating OCD. I found one,

but she wants to meet with my husband and I first, and it is not until May 17th!

I am half tempted to pull him out of school, but I don't want to do that either.

He is not on any medication, and would like to try everything else first before

going that route (although I am aware that may end up being the case.) I did

inform his teacher and she said other adults in the school and his class mates

are wondering what is going on with my son because they are very concerned. My

son had no problems at all at school, but now it is with the flip of a switch,

he is a mess at school I don't know what to do??? He has intrusive thoughts

and make him have anxiety. HELP! Thanks,

>

>

[Guest guest]

For some reason it is common for flare ups to occur in the Spring. This is a

longshot here: Does your child have any seasonal allergies that may be

undetected or untreated? I give my dd an over the counter allergy pill in the

spring and it makes a difference for her. I have noticed that if my kids are

sick, their OCD flares also. Might be worth trying. Also, the nature of OCD is

that its a cyclical mental illness. It comes and goes.

Hope this helps,

Becky in N.D.

>

>

>

>

>

> Hello, I had written earlier this week about my 7-year-old son who is having a

major OCD flare up (typically in the spring.) It is getting so bad, he cries

every day before school, and is now crying through out the day at school! I

want to take him to a therapist that specializes in treating OCD. I found one,

but she wants to meet with my husband and I first, and it is not until May 17th!

I am half tempted to pull him out of school, but I don't want to do that either.

He is not on any medication, and would like to try everything else first before

going that route (although I am aware that may end up being the case.) I did

inform his teacher and she said other adults in the school and his class mates

are wondering what is going on with my son because they are very concerned. My

son had no problems at all at school, but now it is with the flip of a switch,

he is a mess at school I don't know what to do??? He has intrusive thoughts

and make him have anxiety. HELP! Thanks,

>

>

[Guest guest]

I couldn't agree more! Kids can be incredibly judgmental and unforgiving.

Reputation can be really difficult to change.

------------------------------

The advice I would give you based on my children's own personal experience,

particuarly my daughter's, is that at this point medication is going to be

really important. My daughter's OCD started affecting how the other kids at

school viewed her and she had trich (compulsive hair pulling) so by 4th grade

she had very short scraggly hair on top of that. She has never been able to

redeem herself in the eyes of most of her grade despite the fact that she is no

longer having crying meltdowns and behaving oddly. We started her on medication

when she was your son's age, but we didn't find the right one for her until she

was in 4th. She stopped pulling her hair completely since she got on that

medication, and she stopped having melt downs and weird obsessions as well. She

has long beautiful blonde hair, is a straight A student, and is mainly just like

any other kids from what they would notice, yet many kids still have her labeled

as weird and someone not to include. I guess what I am saying is that if your

child's OCD is causing him to stick out socially, the long term effects of that

can be worse than anything you might be worrying about regarding trying a

medication.

[Guest guest]

I couldn't agree more! Kids can be incredibly judgmental and unforgiving.

Reputation can be really difficult to change.

------------------------------

The advice I would give you based on my children's own personal experience,

particuarly my daughter's, is that at this point medication is going to be

really important. My daughter's OCD started affecting how the other kids at

school viewed her and she had trich (compulsive hair pulling) so by 4th grade

she had very short scraggly hair on top of that. She has never been able to

redeem herself in the eyes of most of her grade despite the fact that she is no

longer having crying meltdowns and behaving oddly. We started her on medication

when she was your son's age, but we didn't find the right one for her until she

was in 4th. She stopped pulling her hair completely since she got on that

medication, and she stopped having melt downs and weird obsessions as well. She

has long beautiful blonde hair, is a straight A student, and is mainly just like

any other kids from what they would notice, yet many kids still have her labeled

as weird and someone not to include. I guess what I am saying is that if your

child's OCD is causing him to stick out socially, the long term effects of that

can be worse than anything you might be worrying about regarding trying a

medication.

[Guest guest]

In 1st grade my son who was then 6 began crying during the day in school, it was

completely disruptive. 

We had more trouble on Mondays than other days. Some time I just took him with

my in the morning to the library, and then tried to bring him in at lunch time. 

It was all he could tolerate.  The private therapist supported this.  Other days

in the week were less difficult, but Mondays were the worst.  So making the day

shorter was helpful.  The whole thing lasted a few months, and I pulled him a

total of 4 or 5 times.  It was helpful during the crisis for coping.

Then the therapist suggested scheduling his in-school Social work session for

first thing Monday morning. It was so helpful for him to start the day in her

office playing a game and talking.  Maybe an in-school social worker can help

with coping?

If the classroom teacher is not experienced with OCD, the responses can make

anxiety worse.  We and the teacher used to say, " Don't worry about  x, it will

never happen. "   But the OCD mind will always search for the outrageous

possibility that x WILL happen.   And he felt compelled to obsess and debate

those possibilities endlessly.  Instead, we learned responses to help diffuse

the anxiety.   " Yes that is possible, but it has never happened in 20 years in

this classroom, so the odds are pretty good it won't happen today.  And if it

does, I will be here to help you through it. "   The OCD person has to learn to

tolerate a degree of uncertainty.

I will say a rather silly but effective strategy was humor.  We went a bought a

few joke books. When he was feeling really jazzed up the teacher could ask him

to get his joke book and tell a few knock knock jokes.  Once he got giggling the

anxiety really settled down.

Another factor we learned in retrospect... in 1st grade my son had to walk into

class alone (without parents). Separating at the door was so hard.  He would

hold it together for a while, then fall apart in class.  We completely changed

the routine in 2nd grade.  I walked him all the way to the classroom to meet his

teacher.  He asked her any questions that were worrying him, and settled those

right away.  Then he told her a knock knock joke.  This took all of 3 minutes,

and he happily separated and completed full school days.  Without any meds-

therapy and these routine changes turned around his day completely. He was also

placed into a more challenging math group- it was a better fit and somehow this

helped as well.

 

Maybe something here will be useful for you. OCD does wax and wane, so when

things are very difficult take a deep breath and remember that in three weeks it

may look completely different than it does today.  OCD is a mysterious fellow.

Good luck,

Tara from Chicago