To ask if anyone has any experience of therapy that has worked for teenager with OCD?

She needs cbt with Erp therapy. I can recommend the counsellor my daughter uses. She is in Huddersfield but does online sessions. These sessions together with medication have enabled her to get her life back in control and go to university.

The Nightingale hospital in central London has OCD therapists and is world-class in treating this condition. You need a referral from a psychiatrist to this hospital, but they have treatment programs and it is highly treatable.

The Priory also do adolescent mental health work and will probably be able to help your daughter. The one in Roehampton was very good.

Both of these options are private, unfortunately, although sometimes CAHMS can make a referral on the NHS.

if you can’t afford something like this, I’d suggest searching for a therapist, who has worked out the Priory or the Nightingale and works in OCD therapy, and try and organise some sessions directly without needing a psychiatrist’s involvement.

I agree, CBT doesn’t work for OCD, all out so it doesn’t get to the root of the problem. It can be a nice adjunct sometimes

Hi @deaperatelyunhappyandscared
I know this thread is a year old but I was wondering if things had improved for your DD, and if so how did you manage it?
My SD is currently in a very similar situation and we are at a loss. She is under CAMHS but doesn't really do what they ask her and refuses meds, she is only 12.
No idea what we can do here.

ERP is the recommended form of CBT for OCD.. www.nice.org.uk/guidance/cg31/chapter/Recommendations#steps-3-to-5-treatment-options-for-people-with-ocd-or-bdd

I have OCD and frankly applying CBT to it is like throwing accelerant on a fire. Unfortunately mental health services are very poorly trained and ill equipped to deal with OCD. The crux of CBT is 'challenging' negative thoughts which any OCD sufferer can tell you won't work and will in fact make them worse. The whole point of my illness is that I fight and challenge my illogical thoughts day in, day out. If logic worked on them I'd be completely cured, unfortunately OCD cannot be reasoned with.

ERP (exposure therapy) is preferred amongst OCD sufferers.

I've had OCD since I was a young child. You and she may find this book helpful

amzn.eu/d/7z8DrMX

I’d suggest CBT provided by a qualified CBT therapist using an evidence based intervention.

That sounds so hard @deaperatelyunhappyandscared . How is she now?

Just keep her safe and cosy, feed her stuff she likes to eat and try and get her to shower by buying her some gorgeous smellies as a care package. If you have to take her cups of tea in bed, do so, she needs you right now; it’s the little things that make the biggest difference. A hot water bottle with a fluffy cover is always welcome. Xx

Yeah sounds like she has got depressive symptoms.

Have you jumped up and down and shouted and screamed at CAMHS sufficiently? If so, maybe time to get a private psychiatric assessment. Xx

@deaperatelyunhappyandscared Did you speak with CAMHS? It sounds like you and your daughter need more support.

My son had CBT and it helped enormously

Hi op, I understand how you feel. My dd rejected all offers of counselling etc because she thought medication would be a quick fix. Now she has a prescription but she is too anxious about side effects to take it.
We had a terrible day/night Tuesday but yesterday was a bit better.
Do you have some support in real life?

I'd love to chat with parents for some support. My 18 year old dd is really struggling at the moment with OCD and i am at a loss as to how to help.

Agreed. I've had OCD for all of my life that I can remember, and CBT with a clinical phsychologist quite literally saved my life. I'll always struggle with the symptoms as it doesn't go away entirely but it's extremely manageable and I am incredibly high functioning now that I have the right tools in my toolbox to manage my symptoms. Cannot recommend enough. Wishing you and your daughter the absolute best. I wouldn't wish OCD on anyone and I'm sorry that you're both going through this.

Totally valid. And I know what it’s like when it is totally engrained. Believe me I did things when I had my OCD (nothing bad/unlawful- just not really understandable/logical) that will be kept between about three people on this earth until we die. If you read my post I wasn’t saying to ‘just stop’ which doesn’t work as you say. But a gradual ERP approach does. But I can see you had relatives with long stays in hospital and that’s also totally valid. I have spent my own time in hospital so I get it. I hope @drivingmeoffmybroom was able to take something, if only a little bit of hope from my post. X

@FionaSkates I'm glad you have overcome this terrible illness and your advice comes from a good place. What I would say though is that it isn't just a case of willpower and effort for lots of people. Not giving into complusions for a few days won't work and following the book won't work when OCD is deeply ingrained/ someone's mental health is very fragile. I only say this as it as sometimes people tell sufferers they should 'just stop'. It isn't as simple as that and can be come deeply ingrained and very hard to treat without a lot of professional input.

You can overcome it. Honestly, if I overcame mine, you can do the same. It was brutal but you have to make a decision to be brave one day and tolerate the thought without doing the ritual. You will see that nothing bad happens. This is basically ERP as you will know. Start with maybe 5 minutes or even less and then build up. By the time you get to 20 mins you will have got distracted by something else and it won’t be worth doing the ritual anymore.

I honestly thought I would be stuck in my OCD for the rest of my life, and I was a kid when it started so I thought I was crazy because it hadn’t yet been diagnosed. I read the book ‘Overcoming OCD’ by Professor Veale and decided to just take the plunge and it basically cured me in one weekend.

I know how the ocd brain works and I know you’re sitting there thinking ‘not me, mine is different’ but it isn’t, it’s the same viscous cycle in the brain. You can do this, I absolutely promise you, but you have to let the thought go and let go of the ritual. As you have said, you don’t want your son ending up with the same problem. I know you can do this.
much love xxx

I have a lot of life experience of a relative suffering terribly with OCD. Going back to (their) young adulthood. Severe OCD often requires a spell in hospital - there is a specialist inpatient OCD unit in Ninewells Hospital in Dundee I believe (NHS) My relative was not there but was a mental health in-patient for long spells at least twice in their life. Years ago, extreme exposure therapy to contamination fears was the done thing. Think deliberately touching dirty things found in the street and then putting hands in your mouth (under the direction of a psychologist) and other really shocking forms of exposure. Things even a healthy person would be really uncomfortable with. Years later after a relapse, my family member recounted this to the mental health team at the time and they were aghast. However, it actually did work better than anything ever did again, and my family member went from completely non-functional to being able to cope extremely well despite still having OCD all their life -but it didn't stop them living and enjoying lots of things in life/ having a family/ getting a good job. Modern exposure is less extreme. I think that exposure therapy, plus CBT with someone who actually has proper experience of OCD, is key. Plus medicine prescribed. You need to really fight for help from doctors until there is a proper plan in place. Support can be very wishy washy until you really insist upon it. There are NICE guidlines on how it should be treated - look this up and quote it if necessary. The World Health Organisation had listed OCD as one of the top 10 illnesses, including physical and mental, which impacts on the quality of life. It cannot be underestimated. The suffering is immense. The book 'Overcoming OCD' will give you a lot of good information if you feel you need more information on OCD and treatments.

No answers here, but I wanted to say thank you for helping him.
I suffer from severe OCD and have done since the age of 11. My parents didn't believe in mental health and basically took the piss out of me. It's now 30 years later and I still have OCD along with severe health anxiety and general anxiety.
I'm on medication which helps to a degree, but I've been waiting for years for CBT on the NHS.
I do wonder if my life would be different now if I'd had help 30 years ago.
My 8 year old is just like me personality wise and already panics about germs and has a phobia of sick.

Therapy and pills work for OCD. You must do what the therapist tells you - that’s how you get better.

The other thing I’d say is that parents shouldn’t enable this revolting disease by responding to DC’s overreactions too much or get emotional themselves. That’s annoying & impossible advice but it’s essential. Don’t get too involved. You’re her mother, she’s nearly adult, calm down and detach.

Drugs. Get her medication.

I have OCD and I've tried CBT twice but not found it useful. I've had counselling a number of times and that's offered enough relief to get through a crisis. I don't know if it helps, but my OCD controlled me for years by saying that if I told anyone what was going on in my head that I'd make that thing happen. It was very difficult, but after a few weeks with the counsellor she was able to get me to say some of what I was performing the rituals about.

It's a chronic illness. Part of having it is accepting that it can periodically become acute, and being able to recognise when you're becoming ill/having others recognising you're going off the rails. It's absolutely linked to anxiety, particularly huge events. I had massive 'attacks' after my first child was born, during the death of my brother, etc.

I don't know if your daughter has told you the contents of her intrusive thoughts. I've spoken to other people with OCD and they've been similar to me - that the things we think about are so horrific you can't say them to people you love and it locks you in your own head even more. For instance, I got obsessed that someone was going to cut my husbands arms off with a machete, that'd someone would break in and put my newborn daughter in the washing machine, if I took her out someone would bite her face off.

I'm so sorry your DD has this. It's a vicious and very clever mental illness.