I need hope. Please tell me some positive OCD recovery stories.

[Ocdsucks8613]

My ds 14 has been in the grips of OCD for 4 years now. 3 refusalz from camhs and finally got put on waiting list March of this year. I paid out for private counselling through the 4 years as I was getting no help and kept getting refused. The intrusive thoughts have been throughout the the 4 years, days where he says he can't go on. In recent months the compulsions have accelerated and it's breaking us as a family, ocd is a horrible bully and is taking over is life. We FINALLY got a camhs face to face appointment last week for an ocd assessment and we've met the psychiatrist who talked to us about Fluoxetine which he will start in new year a long with therapy tailored to OCD. Now I need hope from you, someone said its been so engrained that he may not recover(friend of family) :-( 😞 Can anyone give me some positive OCD recovery stories, especially from people or parents of teenagers that had it and have managed to recovery and lead a happy life. X

@Beamur

My DD is 14 and manages her OCD pretty well. It flares up when she is tired or stressed but she's getting better at recognising the signs and taking care of herself. She first engaged with CAHMS when she was only 8 which I think has been really helpful as we have all been able to understand what's going on and support her. It's also stood her in good stead because it doesn't go away entirely. It's exhausting for her when it's active - hers is more around intrusive thoughts, but there's a lot of anxiety around contamination. But, with support and effort it is a manageable condition. Knowing that she can and will get better is very helpful when she's having a bad patch. Therapist also suggested she might want to consider investigating an ASD assessment but she's declined. She thinks she may have autistic traits (I would agree) but it's not a serious or negative thing for her. She's doing well at school, is happy and generally all is well. I have found it much easier to suggest she seeks help when she's 'well' than when she's struggling, when she's least willing to talk to anyone apart from me and DH.

Thank you. This is really good to hear. I wish we had been given help when we first needed it but it is what it is now and at least we are getting it even if its 4 years too late. I'm so glad your daughter is doing well.

I really feel for you - my teen daughter is in the grip of severe ocd and I have ocd myself. I actually had it all my life but was only diagnosed when my children started showing signs.
I hold onto two things when I worry about my daughter, 1) children’s brains don’t finish developing until they are 25 and one part affected is their decision making area. A NT teen is impulsive so add ocd to the mix and so it’s understandable they struggle at this age. They will always have a compulsive mind but to a certain extent I believe as they mature things will get easier for them to deal with compulsion as it does for NT children. I hope my theory is correct.
2) when we realised I had ocd with therapy I was able to change so I believe it’s possible.

My DD had OCD amongst some other issues and we saw a private psychiatrist and requested Fluoxetine. This was 8 months ago. Sometimes the medication is needed to break the exhaustive chain of OCD. My DD described it as dialling it down so she could ignore some but not all urges.
However the reduction in mental noise really helps as it allows space to fill with other things it reduces the hold as it were.
She hasn’t had CBT we spoke to a psychotherapist at the same clinic and she could see my DD totally understood the nature of OCD And would not have got much out of the lengthy therapy. She did give her the basic help points of when a compulsion or thought comes on how to tackle it etc.
I would say her OCD has gone down to a 2/3. She has 20mg so please push for that or more slowly increased of course as smaller doses really don’t touch it.
We also had some melatonin which might help at night to shut the brain off a bit. There are lots of linked conditions such as ADHD and ASD which might be worth thinking about.
I am very pro medication along with therapy often the young teens need this to be able focus on the therapy.
You are definitely going the right way and there is hope my DD was very unwell and still has her battles to fight but also is doing well at school and has a part time job and living life. It can get better, hold on.