Dd14 intrusive thoughts ocd? Book recommendation please!

[Karwomannghia]

Hi my dd has just come and spoken to me about some behaviours she can’t control. She said she can’t read because her brain focuses on certain words and she has to reread them. Also gets fixated on washing her hair properly, not having any gaps in handwriting, immaculate bedroom, has to repeatedly sniff to check her clothes are ok to wear again when they’re visibly clean.
She previously has had intrusive thoughts (sexual) that disturbed her and anxiety and we worked through that with the anxiety gremlin book which I saw recommended on here. She was going through a difficult time with friends as well. She has a better friendship group now. Can anyone recommend a book or even where to find a therapist? I’d like to give it a go myself first, she’s quite open with me and I’ve studied psychology and worked with younger children with complex mental health needs. My dbro was also mentally ill and he’d talk to me. Thanks for help.

I got ‘overcoming unwanted intrusive thoughts’ on amazon and found it really helpful.

Thanks for the recommendation, I’ll have a look. Do you think it would be good for teens? I’ve found a website for teen ocd and she’s started to look at it and said it mentioned other things that she recognises in herself that she didn’t realise we’re because of that. Fortunately she doesn’t get the bit where she thinks something awful will happen if she doesn’t do the behaviours, it just leaves her with an uncomfortable unfinished feeling.

I got it for my 14 year old who was having intrusive thoughts that he couldn’t shake off, some of which were irrational. I didn’t give him it to read but tried to read bits myself then go through it with him, picking out the most relevant bits. I think it was good in showing that thoughts are just thoughts, they don’t mean anything etc. I also had a book by Dawn Heubner. I can’t remember the name, but there’s some more suited to younger and older children. This would be good for the ocd behaviours like having to re read words as it talks about the initial anxiety levels and being able to resist the behaviour and watch the anxiety lessen. I’ll try to find the one which is most suited to teens.

Hi,
I was going through old threads looking for something else and came across yours...
My son has ocd. I bought the 'freeing your child from ocd' book and it was brilliant. We had a referral to CAMHs and this is what they recommended to us before we actually got to see anyone.
It was so clear about everything and really helped me to talk to him and find ways of helping him cope. I still dip into it now at times.
We borrowed the 'What to do when your brain gets stuck' book (which was also recommended) from the library and worked through various exercises. It might be too young for your daughter (I think it's aimed at 7-11 year olds) but I still remind my DS (15) at times to "boss it back" which is from that book, so it might be useful...
Good luck with it all.
We cancelled the CAMHs support in the end, as he was really working hard on the various exercises from both books and it changed his life.
He still has odd moments of things, it never goes completely away, but he knows how to deal with it now and gone are the days when it took forever to do things due to all the rituals that he 'had' to do...

I think this book (see below) is good @Karwomannghia (with apologies for the massive link!). I’m a CBT therapist and I would recommend CBT as the best evidence based approach. Im personally seeing a lot of young adults struggling with intrusive thoughts which, anecdotally, I think is to do with the situation over the last year; the uncertainty, the disruption and the isolation - there seems to have been a real rise in those have problems for the first time or an escalation.

If you want to look into CBT the CBT register has lists of BABCP accredited therapists www.cbtregisteruk.com/ in private practice or you could ask for a GP referral or self refer to IAPT if she is 18 (not sure?). It’s all on line at the moment but this is working pretty well. The IAPT NHS route can have long wait times so if you can find a private therapist who is babcp accredited then that would be best.

www.amazon.co.uk/Break-Free-OCD-Overcoming-Compulsive/dp/0091939690/ref=sr_1_1?hvlocphy=9045125&hvnetw=g&keywords=break+free+from+ocd&hvadid=259003553217&qid=1621547536&dchild=1&gclid=Cj0KCQjwkZiFBhD9ARIsAGxFX8BOT2GfLEd3EcdA-Vgam2RF1VTLp1Hgw2bT4yO7Oc0qndWjlj3jpEQaAtieEALw_wcB&hydadcr=10545_1753822&hvdev=c&hvqmt=e&tag=mumsnetforu03-21&hvtargid=kwd-299680954019&adgrpid=54811245522&hvrand=8095947099851457268&sr=8-1

@Karwomannghia

Hi my dd has just come and spoken to me about some behaviours she can’t control. She said she can’t read because her brain focuses on certain words and she has to reread them. Also gets fixated on washing her hair properly, not having any gaps in handwriting, immaculate bedroom, has to repeatedly sniff to check her clothes are ok to wear again when they’re visibly clean. She previously has had intrusive thoughts (sexual) that disturbed her and anxiety and we worked through that with the anxiety gremlin book which I saw recommended on here. She was going through a difficult time with friends as well. She has a better friendship group now. Can anyone recommend a book or even where to find a therapist? I’d like to give it a go myself first, she’s quite open with me and I’ve studied psychology and worked with younger children with complex mental health needs. My dbro was also mentally ill and he’d talk to me. Thanks for help.

There's some good downloadable and printable resources on the "blurtitout" website under the shop section.

In terms of therapy, I work in a school and we have a counselling team who visit the school once a week and see students who we have referred. Perhaps you could get in touch with her school and see what support they are able to offer? GP will also be able to sign post you in the way of support if you're unsure about discussing it with school.

Also just want to add that I can sympathise with your daughter. I experienced the same thing when I was around 13 and it was tough. Her opening up to you and being able to talk to you about it is fantastic and will be one of the biggest helps to her

Thank you for these comments I didn’t see there had been further comments! I’ve bought a couple of books off Amazon and they’re ready if she feels worse again. After I posted the op, she said she felt better talking about it. Also she brought her book down and read it next to me so we could work on what to if she got stuck on a particular phrase or word. I think just being next to me and the environment change helped and there was only one sentence she couldn’t get past for a bit. It was during the Easter hols and I think it was around anxiety and uncertainty about going back to school which fortunately was ok. So it seems to have calmed down but we’re ready if it starts up again!