To ask what helped your OCD/intrusive thoughts?

[thefamilyupstairs]

Shamelessly posting here for traffic as I'm at my wits end. Dd16 has ASD and several years ago developed OCD. It mostly involves her thinking she gets urine/faeces over her body after going to the toilet, and she spends hours washing herself afterwards. She also has constant intrusive thoughts and images. This is literally taking over our whole family's life as she occupies the bathroom, we can't go out etc.
She's been referred to CAMHS multiple times but doesn't want to engage. The GP can't medicate her until she's 18 apparently.
Is there anything I can do to help? I try to be as patient as I can and encourage her to leave the bathroom.
Any advice welcome, thanks in advance.

Antidepressants

Why doesn’t she want to engage?

I have OCD and ive been this way as long as i can remember, it started off as a health anxiety type thing and has splintered off into all sorts of sub sets of OCD. They're just thoughts at the end of the day and they don't mean anything is what my therapist said... I've kind of learnt to live with it now! I know I'll never be cured and coming to terms with that fact has helped me immensely I still get bad days but I can deal with it mostly.

Intrusive thoughts were very troubling when I was younger because I thought I was evil not suffering from a mental illness. My friend had a baby when we very young and as I was holding her an intrusive thought popped into my head to throw her at a wall. Where they come from I do not know but just being able to think something so disgusting stopped me from eating and sleeping for a while. As I said this still happens most days some even more extreme but I know I'm never going to act on them and that isn't me as a person.

@Wolfiefan shes in denial about her ASD and other medical problems. She thinks there's a conspiracy between HCPs to diagnose her with medical conditions that she doesn't have. Apparently this is quite common in autistic teens.
@Carpy88999 unfortunately it's having such an impact on her life. She only attends school for 90 minutes a day and even then she misses a lot because of the washing. She (or us) really can't go on like this. My heart is literally broken for her.

Exposure therapy. As someone with OCD, it works better than anything but it is the most painful thing ever. But it’s the only true way to help.

she needs to not wash and therefore sit with the feeling.

Does she feel she’s doing ok then? Would she say she’s happy?

Also autistic and OCD. For me it was very much mind over matter tbh, it sounds so blasé but it was really difficult. I tell myself it's an intrusive thought, it's not true, I know it's not true, stop thinking about it, take a big breath and walk away. It feels I've waking through cement but the more you do it, the easier it gets. Its some you do for yourself though, not that anyone can help yo u with. For me anyway.

Talking therapy and exposure therapy helped me battle OCD. Exposure therapy doesn’t need to be instant, cold turkey. It could be that she spends slightly less time every week washing herself until she does it less and less

No she's not happy, it's so draining for her. She's utterly exhausted. She's constantly trying to navigate these thoughts/pictures. She says she can't cut back on the washing as the guilt will be too much. A number of years ago a psychologist told me treating OCD in someone with ASD is more complicated due to their rigidity of thinking.

Have they tried to “diagnose” in the past?
Medication, CBT, distraction, mindfulness, getting outside, exercise all helped me.
I echo an above comment. I struggle with the have I locked the car thing (amongst many others). I let myself check it three times. No more. Then move on.

She needs CBT and medication
she needs to engage with Cahms
look at the nice guidance for OCD

this won’t just get better -
put all your energies into her getting the right specialist help

Have you looked into EMDR? It’s not confrontational like CBT.

Intrusive thoughts are absolute torture! I had PTSD after a terrifying event when I was 17 and was never the same since. After trying many different things including therapy, homeopathy, herbal anti-anxiety stuff etc I finally discovered SSRIs - commonly known as anti-depressants and they give me complete relief from my OCD. Thank my lucky stars almost every day that I was born in an era where we have them. The psychiatrist I initially saw at a very well regarded clinic said that sertraline is particularly well tolerated by young women and highly effective at eliminating OCD symptoms!

I have anxiety and used to have a bit of OCD and an eating disorder.
The way I've learnt to deal with it is by filling my time keeping busy and doing things I enjoy so less time to let the worries in.
CBT makes you challenge the thoughts and gain perspective.
I never wanted medication tbh.
My heart goes out to you.

Citalopram and reading some books around it. It’s awful but the medication really helped me. Hope she can find something thay
helps.

To not give them lot of attention can help.

Don't be scared of them either. They like to frighten you.

A psychiatrist either nhs (evidently they aren’t being much help) or private can definitely prescribe.

I really appreciate the replies, thank you 💐