Tips to help older teen with apparent OCD/germ phobia?

[JudithS]

Hi, my hitherto healthy 17-year-old has recently developed anxiety about germs and hygiene. She keeps washing her hands and making her skin sore. She is pretty much producing a pile of laundry daily, only wearing outer clothes for one day (I couldn't keep up so she has started doing some herself).

The GP surgery won't deal with me now that she is over 16 so it's impossible to e-mail them (and they don't take phone calls from ANYONE!) but I could certainly drop a letter to them and ask them to contact her, as she doesn't want to contact them. However, I do worry they might do something to make her worse, such as making her keep a journal (which to me reinforces ruminating) or give her drugs (I had anti-depressants as a teen for what I now know to be misophonia and they made me MUCH worse).

I think sixth form is pretty hard work but on the face of it she is coping. She has a small friendship group and comes out of her shell with them. They seem very sensible and funny.

Are there any good books that anyone can recommend? Thanks!

• JudithS

OCD is serious and can escalate rapidly. Plus the longer it goes on the harder it is ti change. You need to be getting her help. The GP won’t tell her to keep a journal. They will either refer for talking therapies (you can self refer in some area) and/or suggest medications (usually SSRIs).

SSRIs can be very effective for OCD but are very individual. Just because you got worse on them (for a different issue I might add) doesn’t mean your daughter will. She would need to try them to see if they suit. I didn’t get on with SSRIs either so the GP switched to a tricyclic and then finally Mirtazapine which worked for me.

In the meantime, for more information and support and self help, the OCD action website has lots of information and resources and they have a helpline:

https://ocdaction.org.uk/

David Veale is one of the UK’s leading experts on OCD and his stuff is excellent so would recommend this book:

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Overcoming-Obsessive-Compulsive-Disorder-2nd-behavioural/dp/1472136012/ref=asc_df_1472136012?mcid=187c0e89e6233a218ba6071bc01c272a&th=1&psc=1&hvocijid=8462781692214896552-1472136012-&hvexpln=74&tag=googshopuk-21&linkCode=df0&hvadid=696285193871&hvpos=&hvnetw=g&hvrand=8462781692214896552&hvpone=&hvptwo=&hvqmt=&hvdev=m&hvdvcmdl=&hvlocint=&hvlocphy=9045782&hvtargid=pla-2281435177818&psc=1&gad_source=1

Best of luck.

Does she know what triggered this? Sometimes it can be an innocuous conversation, or something she overheard, a SM trope or even a TV programme. Worthwhile asking because that's the key to solving it.

Thank you both for you answers. I sent a message to the GP surgery on their weird portal (we are not allowed to ring up!) and someone did ring me and ask to speak to my daughter, so I know they have received the message. She is out so I gave them her mobile number (quickly warned my daughter that I had been in contact with them -- I did tell her before that I was thinking of asking the GP about it).

So hopefully they will reach my daughter and she can get some help. I will also look up the David Veale book.

Thanks!

I agree with the recommendations from @DisenchantedOwl and I would also add a book I’ve mentioned on MN many times called Break Free From OCD written by Drs Bream and Oldfield and Professor Paul Salkovkis. I would stick to CBT from a BABCP accredited clinician if you end up going down the private route.