Anyone else with a child who has OCD?

[ToffeeWhirl]

Am looking for advice (and, hopefully, some positive stories). My DS (13) has Tourettes and OCD. It is the OCD that causes the problems, as his tics are minor now. He is home educated because his anxiety and OCD made school impossible for him to tolerate. He's on 20mg of fluoxetine daily.

We have just found out that one of his OCD habits has caused him real physical damage. This has resulted in an urgent trip to the hospital. He will need surgery. I don't want to go into more details here.

I have contacted his psychiatrist and she has upped his fluoxetine dosage and is arranging CBT for him. She wouldn't arrange it before because he has had it in the past and wasn't motivated enough to benefit. I asked about the Maudsley, which is a centre of excellence for OCD in children, I believe, but she said my son's case wasn't serious enough for a referral.

I have two months until my next meeting with her. In the meantime, I have to somehow work at controlling my son's OCD habit myself, which is impossible unless I don't let him out of my sight and never sleep. So now I'm teaching him myself and becoming his psychologist/psychiatrist .

Thoughts and advice much appreciated, thanks.

Hi toffee and welcome to the board, that sounds really tough.

I have no experience of OCD so cant offer any advice, sorry.

I hope someone comes along who can help

Thanks, Ineed.

Nobody else? I feel as if I'm the only one with a child like mine .

Hi toffee. No you are not alone. My Ds 16 has had OCD for many years. He also has Asperger's syndrome which has made accessing CBT difficult.

At 13 his OCD was so severe that he was admitted to the Maudsley as an inpatient. His stay there did improve things greatly but he still has major problems.

My Ds also takes fluoxetine 60mg currently. On what grounds did the psychiatrist say his OCD was not severe enough to warrent a referral to the Maudsley? There is a questionnaire which rates severity on the basis of time the rituals take and how much they interfer with normal life. Have you and your Ds done this? If he has physically injured himself enough to need surgery I would have thought the OCD is severe enough to at least qualify for proper assessment.

Asking you to manage the rituals without any support or guidance is completely useless in my experience and puts a huge strain on the parent.

As I say my DS still has quite severe problems so I have no magic cures but I do understand how completely draining managing OCD can be.

Feel free to ask any other questions or to vent. I am happy for you to PM me if anything is too sensitive to put on a public board.

Thanks for your reply, NoHaudin. I'll PM you.