Does anyone have a teen with OCD? Would appreciate a chat.

[CaptainHatRack]

Hi, does anyone have a teen with OCD? DS (16) has been struggling for a while now. We’ve been seeing a Clinical Psych. for nearly a year but he really struggles with ERP- would appreciate any replies from people in similar situations. TIA

[Joystar]

Hi, my 13 year old DD has OCD and has been having ERP treatment with CAMHs since May this year. She has improved quite a bit and now can control the smaller obsessions and the biggest one is still ruling her ability to go to school and camhs want to discharge her.
I don’t manage to use mumsnet much but I am happy to chat when I can reply.

[CaptainHatRack]

Hi Joystar, thanks for your reply. Our situation is similar in that we’ve been seeing the Clinical Psych., since May 2018, who wants to discharge but DS nowhere near as improved as we’d hoped. He’s had a terrible relapse (if that’s the word) over Christmas and he’s back to almost where we started from. Did you find your DD’s progress was up and down? Or just kept getting better?

[Joystar]

She’s been very up and down. Very slow to start and then suddenly she started responding to treatment and she was almost back at school full time after no attendance at all for a year. But now she’s back to struggling and we are having a particularly stressful time as a family at the moment (with something we can’t change) and I worry that camhs are wanting to discharge her at the worse possible time, just because she’s had more than the average number of sessions.
Is your son with Camhs or private? What are his obsessions?

[CaptainHatRack]

Really feel for your daughter- such a hard condition to manage. DS started with thinking he was a bad person and then actions to because of that. He’s had loads of obsessions- he can start a new one because of something he sees when he’s out and that becomes a problem. He did get much better - zero to no actions - but he’s had a terrible time of it over the last few weeks. Our next appt with the Psych is next week but they are trying to bring the appts to an end as they say there’s nothing new they can give us, we ‘just’ have to apply it.
We’re doing multiple daily sessions, at home, of meditation and ERP. we did get to the point before Christmas where he was feeling a lot better. I suppose I’m venting because it’s been such a tough few weeks!
The Psych is private. Who did you see via CAMHS?

[CaptainHatRack]

Apologies for the typos!

[Joystar]

That sounds really tricky. Has he had any other stressors recently that may have caused a relapse? Has the physiologist mentioned medication? You say he sees things when he out, does he worry that he’s accidental hurt someone etc?
My daughter has symptoms are hard to treat as she needs things to be just right in order to feel she can cope in certain situations. So if she hasn’t been to the toilet, has a headache, hasn’t slept well etc she feels she can’t go out. Also if she’s had something that’s made her slightly stressed or changed her routine she becomes agitated and then she can’t go out or to school because the ‘agitated feelings’ means things aren’t ‘right’. It’s so frustrating as she really does want to go to school etc.
We see a clinical psychologist at camhs. They’ve been very good and have formed a good relationship with my daughter . She’s had 20ish sessions of ERP but it’s focused more on other little obsessions that she also has around germs etc and not in the real issue of the ‘coping’. My daughter is back at school 50 percent of the time but it’s not enough for her to get an education and now camhs want to discharge her and it looks like I’ll be back to trying to help her manage it alone.

Does your DS manage to go school/ college?