DS (16) and OCD

[CanIGoToBedNowPlease]

Hello, my DS has recently been diagnosed with OCD and he's having weekly therapy sessions. The therapist is lovely, very well qualified and he, initially, did very well and his symptoms appeared to improve. Following an incident a few weeks ago everything has come back and we're back to the stage we were at before we started seeing the therapist. I feel so sorry and sad for him.

Does anyone else have a teen with OCD? How do you cope and does it improve?
TIA

anyone?

No experience of having a teen with OCD but I have mental health issues myself including OCD tendencies. When I started therapy I found I began to make progress but then a setback would happen and I would end up back where I started or even worse. I think this is quite normal. What I noticed is that after starting again it would be easier to start making progress again and each relapse into my previous way of thinking/ behaving would be shorter or less intense. Unfortunately recovery from mental illness is not a straight line and it can often feel like for every step forwards there are two backwards, but with the right treatment then slowly over weeks or months you will begin to notice improvements in how each setback or relapse is handled.

Thank you crazykittensmile, I really appreciate your reply.

My dc have ocd, greatly helped by CBT. You got to work a lot with it yourself (homework). Normal therapy is not what is generally used for ocd.

Did the OCD start suddenly? If so, it is worth you looking at PANS / PANDAS. Ignore anything that says it's only relevant if it starts at a young age though. There is a FB group for the conditions.

Hi @chocolateworshipper, yes it did start suddenly and the first psychologist we approached suggested we look into PANDAS. Ds has been ill since very young but we think he's been misdiagnosed. The problem we have at the moment is that we need to get his OCD to a manageable state before he'll agree to go to GP again.

Thanks for all your replies, very much appreciated.