CarolynN

Hello and welcome, I just wanted to let you know I will be praying for you and also to let you know some things that might help you. I have had OCD since I was a child. Although the repetition part of it is not longer there for me, like the hand washing or checking doors, the obsessive thoughts still are. Here is a post I did to a woman who called herself "Desperate". I explained to her in this link what I have found so helpful in my life http://www.latitudes.org/forums/index.php?showtopic=2623 . Another thing you really should check into is something called PANDAS. A lot of times OCD can be brought on by this which has to do with the strep virus. The strep in some people can cause issues where this PANDAS situation comes about. There is all kinds of information on this site regarding PANDAS. Just simply go under the search mode and type it in and you will find a lot of information. Another thing to consider is Candida. This is an overgrowth of yeast in the intestinal track. What happens is the yeast starts interfering ultimately with the neurotransmitters in the brain. Think about when a person drinks a lot of alcohol. What happens even though the alcohol is going into the intestinal track the alcohol effects the brain function. This is the same thing with Candida. Again do a search on this site and you will read all kinds of things. The forum leader, Chemar, has dealt with Candida with her own son who has OCD and Tourettes. I know she used a product called Candida Clear by Now with a lot of success. One of the main indications of Candida is a strong desire for sweets and carbs. Here are some links Chemar did to help people understand the treatments she did for her son. Keep in mind that her son also has has tourettes but I think this will be very helpful to you http://www.latitudes.org/forums/index.php?...aded&start= and also this one http://www.latitudes.org/forums/index.php?showtopic=687 . One thing that has helped many, many people with OCD is Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT). If you have health insurance, you can check to see who in your area does this. You can find Christian counselor's that does the CBT. I know on my health insurance website it allows me to do a search by both Christian Counselor and Cognitive Behavioral Therapy to find counselors. Another thing that is a very big deal is keeping your diet free of Aspartame, MSG, and artificial food dyes. I have had to do this with my own son. My son has both tourettes and mild OCD. But I will tell you when he has these things in his system his anxieties certainly go way up. What happens is they are horrible on the nervous system when you intake them. Here is a link I did regarding MSG http://www.latitudes.org/forums/index.php?...aded&start= . Here is a listing I did regarding the foods I have found I can feed Daniel http://www.latitudes.org/forums/index.php?showtopic=2976 . If you have food allergies or enviromental allergies, that can be contributing to the issue. For some it might be milk or wheat. Some find it helpful to do allergy testing to see if there is something they are supper sensitive too. What happens when you have an allergy going on it releases histamine in your body. This histamine effects your neurotransmitters as well. My son is on a ton of different vitamins. He is doing soooo much better on these. But a lot of what has helped him has been magnesium, B vitamins, and Omega 3's. The magnesium that seems to help him the most is magesium taurate. There is a woman named Bonnie Grimaldi who developed a vitamin called Ts-Plus specifically to help people with tourettes and OCD too. Here is a link to her site http://www.bonniegr.com/ . But for my son I have discovered I needed to use a lot of other supplements and you can read what I have given him in this link (it is down a ways in the first posting) http://www.latitudes.org/forums/index.php?...Carolyn\.N . The main thing I want to get across to you is there are answers. There are soooooooooooooooooo many different things that can be done to help. This website is full of people that have searched for natural ways to help themselves and sharing there experiences of what worked and what has not been so helpful. It may take a lot of trial and error but do hang in there. I know this for certain that God has helped me beyond what I can ever explain and I know He can do the same for you. I know I gave you a lot of information but these are the places to start on the journey of understanding as to what you can do for yourself. I also wanted to let you know that if you have questions, for example regarding PANDAS, you might want to post on the Tourettes section of this forum. It gets A LOT more people viewing and you will get more answers there. God bless you and again hang in there. There are so many avenues of hope on this whole thing! Carolyn

Hello and welcome! I am sorry to hear you are going through so much right now. But have hope there are so many different things you can do to help your children. I wanted to share with you what I have discovered with my own son. I truly hope this helps you because I cannot tell you how much it helped us. I thank God for ultimately showing me the direction I needed to go to help my son. When it comes to your husband, not knowing you have Tourettes, my gut is the burden of you holding this in is much greater then any reaction he may have. You may be very surprised that he does not react the way you perceive he will. The "giants" we create in our minds, with fear running ramped, are in reality more like "itty bitty little bugs" when the fear is actually faced. I know from my own experience fear can take over like wildfire and when you stop giving into that fear it makes a world of difference. I know for me when I face my fears I think to myself why did I live with that fear for so long when it was so unnecessary. For me, I am a Christian, I would pray about how to talk to my husband and then let God do his part to work on your husband's heart. Well getting back to my son who has had tics since he was 3. We found out that my son is highly sensitive to MSG, Yellow Dye number 5 and 6, Red 40, and High Fructose Corn Syrup. The problem with MSG is it is under so many different names. Here is a posting I did regarding the MSG problem and all of its various names (yes there is MSG in certain hot dogs. Usually it is listed as a hydrolyzed ingredient). http://www.latitudes.org/forums/index.php?...aded&start= . You will see this in the post but school hot lunches are a source of a lot of MSG. I created a list of foods on another posting that I found my son could eat. Here is the list http://www.latitudes.org/forums/index.php?...;hl=trader+joes . I have found two supplements to be VERY effective for my son. One is N-Acetyl-L-Cysteine and the other is straight potassium bicarbonate (I believe you can only get the potassium bicarbonate through a Naturopathic Doctor. Although I think Faith posted that Alka Selzter Gold has it in it). Anyhow here are the links http://www.latitudes.org/forums/index.php?...Carolyn+N\ and http://www.latitudes.org/forums/index.php?...Carolyn\.N . After you have read the above posts you will see my son is on many different products. By no means could I ever say that these two supplements alone are doing the trick but they have given him GREAT improvement. He is also taking Bonnie's Grimaldi's TS-Plus which has magnesium taurate and high B vitamins. He is also on some others but they are listed in the above postings. The other thing to consider is candida. This is an overgrowth of yeast in the intestinal system. This seems to be a pretty common problem for someone with tics. So you might want to do a search on the forum about candida because there have been many postings. I should also say when he does get an "overdose" of artificial, MSG, or High Fructose Corn Syrup it takes about a week to clear out of his system. But I have found to get it out of his system faster to give him epsom salts baths (2 cups in a nice full tub of water). You can even do this twice a day. Also I give him an extra boost of B6. He is 7 years old and about 59 pounds. I give him up to 100 mg's on days when his tics start to flare. It helps to get his system back into balance. I would not do the extra B6 every day, but I usually do it about once every week to two weeks). My naturopathic doctor told me to do this for him. I also have to say that when Daniel would get something in him that bothered him I would start seeing symptoms within about a hour to two hours. All of a sudden tics would increase. Although stress causes tics too and so does tiredness. God Bless, Carolyn

Hello, I have to confess I have not read through all the links. So I don't know if anyone else mentioned what I am about to share. But I had to tell you what my family has done naturally to get rid of strep and it does work. Here is a link in which I explained it to another forum member http://www.latitudes.org/forums/index.php?...art=#entry18107 . In the above link I mentioned the grapefruit seed extract. Since then I have learned the best way to do it is get the liquid grapefruit seed extract. Put about 3 drops in about 4 ounces of water (it tastes horrible). Then you want to gargle with it. You do this about 3 times a day. For my children I hid the grapefruit seed extract taste by putting 2 to 3 drops in lemonade or orange juice. I learned a huge lesson though you do not want to over due the grapefruit seed extract (GSE). Last December I had strep and did this regimen to get rid of it but in the midst I gave myself a blocked saliva gland. I WAY over did the GSE not thinking about my mouth taking so much of something so bitter in. I must have been doing it 10 or so times a day. So again just don't overdue it. You could google grapefruit seed extract and strep. I am sure you will come up with all kinds of information. I know I did when I did it. Anyhow it works especially if you catch it early on. You also want to really load up on the probiotics because you need the good bacteria to help fight the bad. Also, just a side note, you might want to get into a naturopathic doctor because recurrent strep is a sign of some other underlying issue normally. If it were me I would stay on a really good quality probiotic permanently if I was dealing with recurring strep. Hope this helps some! Carolyn

Hello, I have to just give you my quick story about shirt sucking. My son, Daniel, sucked on shirts HORRIBLE for about 1 1/2 years. He would also suck on any kind of cloth including pillows, seat belt straps, my clothes, etc. Anyhow all this came to an end when I came to understand it had everything to do with artificial food dyes, MSG, and High Fructose Corn Syrup. I have attached a link below in which I explain my sons sensitivities and some links on the supplements he is on. The long and short of it is the only time he starts sucking on cloth now is when he gets overloaded with artificial junk. My son also has had tics (like making varies noises or moving his eyes certain ways). But all this has disappeared since doing a much cleaner diet and the vitamins. Well any how here is the link http://www.latitudes.org/forums/index.php?...art=#entry25586 . By the way Dr. Feingold, who is known for diets for children to get out the artificial food dyes, said that cloth sucking is a sign of a reaction to artificial dyes. At least from my experience he was right on! Carolyn

Hello, I understand exactly what you are saying. I remember being so aware of every tic my son did and it was so troubling to me. This is what drove me to find answers for him. I now can say, since I know what is generating his tics, when I see him tic I am completely at peace about it. The uncomfortableness for me, prior to understanding what was going on, was from the fear of not knowing what to do for him. I have already posted this several times this weeks on the board, but just in case you have not read it, this is what we found out greatly helped my son. I hope it might help your child. We found out that my son is highly sensitive to MSG, Yellow Dye number 5 and 6, Red 40, and High Fructose Corn Syrup. The problem with MSG is it is under so many different names. Here is a posting I did regarding the MSG problem and all of its various names (yes there is MSG in certain hot dogs. Usually it is listed as a hydrolyzed ingredient). http://www.latitudes.org/forums/index.php?...aded&start= . You will see this in the post but school hot lunches are a source of a lot of MSG. I created a list of foods on another posting that I found my son could eat. Here is the list http://www.latitudes.org/forums/index.php?...;hl=trader+joes . Here is a link regarding my research as to what is actually going on within my son's body regarding why he cannot process certain foods well http://www.latitudes.org/forums/index.php?...mp;hl=sulfation . Here is a link with what has so greatly helped my son regarding N-Acetyl-L-Cysteine and the other is straight potassium bicarbonate (I believe you can only get the potassium bicarbonate through a Naturopathic Doctor. Although I think Faith posted that Alka Selzter Gold has it in it). Anyhow here are the links . Here is a link regarding my theory as to what is actually going on within his body and why he is not processing certain foods correctly . After you have read the above posts you will see my son is on many different products. By no means could I ever say that these two supplements alone are doing the trick but they have given him GREAT improvement. He is also taking Bonnie's Grimaldi's TS-Plus which has magnesium taurate and high B vitamins. He is also on some others but they are listed in the above postings. The other thing to consider is candida. This is an overgrowth of yeast in the intestinal system. This seems to be a pretty common problem for someone with tics. So you might want to do a search on the forum about candida because there have been many postings. I am curious if you now what brand of hot dogs you feed you daughter. To me it seems pretty likely that she could be very sensitive to MSG like my son. I should also say when he does get an "overdose" of artificial, MSG, or High Fructose Corn Syrup it takes about a week to clear out of his system. But I have found to get it out of his system faster to give him epsom salts baths (2 cups in a nice full tub of water). You can even do this twice a day. Also I give him an extra boost of B6. He is 7 years old and about 59 pounds. I give him up to 100 mg's on days when his tics start to flare. It helps to get his system back into balance. I would not do the extra B6 every day, but I usually do it about once every week to two weeks). My naturopathic doctor told me to do this for him. I also have to say that when Daniel would get something in him that bothered him I would start seeing symptoms within about a hour to two hours. All of a sudden tics would increase. Although stress causes tics too and so does tiredness. I hope this helps. Just hang in there. I know from my own experience it is very frightening now knowing what to do for your child especially when they think mom and dad should have all the answers already. But there are answers. There is something triggering this and it is just a matter of finding out what it is. What greatly helped me understand what was going on with Daniel was a lot of research on this forum, doing daily food journals to track what he was eating and how bad his tics were that day, and most importantly prayer! God Bless, Carolyn

Hello and welcome! I am sorry to hear your family is going through so much right now. I have to share with you what has so greatly helped my son who has tics and has since he was 3. He by the way would chew on things like crazy (shirts, pillows, toys, shopping carts, EVERYTHING) before we did the below program. I had never linked the chewing with a reaction to what he was eating. I just thought them as seperate issues. But they were very, very much connected. Anyhow here is what we have found out and rather then retyping it I just copied it over from another post I just did recently. I really hope this helps you because it so greatly has helped out family. We found out that my son is highly sensitive to MSG, Yellow Dye number 5 and 6, Red 40, and High Fructose Corn Syrup. The problem with MSG is it is under so many different names. Here is a posting I did regarding the MSG problem and all of its various names (yes there is MSG in certain hot dogs. Usually it is listed as a hydrolyzed ingredient). http://www.latitudes.org/forums/index.php?...aded&start= . You will see this in the post but school hot lunches are a source of a lot of MSG. I created a list of foods on another posting that I found my son could eat. Here is the list http://www.latitudes.org/forums/index.php?...;hl=trader+joes . I have found two supplements to be VERY effective for my son. One is N-Acetyl-L-Cysteine and the other is straight potassium bicarbonate (I believe you can only get the potassium bicarbonate through a Naturopathic Doctor. Although I think Faith posted that Alka Selzter Gold has it in it). Anyhow here are the links http://www.latitudes.org/forums/index.php?...Carolyn+N\ and http://www.latitudes.org/forums/index.php?...Carolyn\.N . After you have read the above posts you will see my son is on many different products. By no means could I ever say that these two supplements alone are doing the trick but they have given him GREAT improvement. He is also taking Bonnie's Grimaldi's TS-Plus which has magnesium taurate and high B vitamins. He is also on some others but they are listed in the above postings. The other thing to consider is candida. This is an overgrowth of yeast in the intestinal system. This seems to be a pretty common problem for someone with tics. So you might want to do a search on the forum about candida because there have been many postings. I am curious if you now what brand of hot dogs you feed you daughter. To me it seems pretty likely that she could be very sensitive to MSG like my son. I should also say when he does get an "overdose" of artificial, MSG, or High Fructose Corn Syrup it takes about a week to clear out of his system. But I have found to get it out of his system faster to give him epsom salts baths (2 cups in a nice full tub of water). You can even do this twice a day. Also I give him an extra boost of B6. He is 7 years old and about 59 pounds. I give him up to 100 mg's on days when his tics start to flare. It helps to get his system back into balance. I would not do the extra B6 every day, but I usually do it about once every week to two weeks). My naturopathic doctor told me to do this for him. I also have to say that when Daniel would get something in him that bothered him I would start seeing symptoms within about a hour to two hours. All of a sudden tics would increase. Although stress causes tics too and so does tiredness. I hope this helps. Just hang in there. I know from my own experience it is very frightening now knowing what to do for your child especially when they think mom and dad should have all the answers already. But there are answers. There is something triggering this and it is just a matter of finding out what it is. What greatly helped me understand what was going on with Daniel was a lot of research on this forum, doing daily food journals to track what he was eating and how bad his tics were that day, and most importantly prayer! God Bless, Carolyn

Hello, I am sorry to hear you daughter is going through so much right now. I have to share with you what has so greatly helped my son who has tics and has since he was 3. We found out that my son is highly sensitive to MSG, Yellow Dye number 5 and 6, Red 40, and High Fructose Corn Syrup. The problem with MSG is it is under so many different names. Here is a posting I did regarding the MSG problem and all of its various names (yes there is MSG in certain hot dogs. Usually it is listed as a hydrolyzed ingredient). http://www.latitudes.org/forums/index.php?...aded&start= . You will see this in the post but school hot lunches are a source of a lot of MSG. I created a list of foods on another posting that I found my son could eat. Here is the list http://www.latitudes.org/forums/index.php?...;hl=trader+joes . I have found two supplements to be VERY effective for my son. One is N-Acetyl-L-Cysteine and the other is straight potassium bicarbonate (I believe you can only get the potassium bicarbonate through a Naturopathic Doctor. Although I think Faith posted that Alka Selzter Gold has it in it). Anyhow here are the links http://www.latitudes.org/forums/index.php?...Carolyn+N\ and http://www.latitudes.org/forums/index.php?...Carolyn\.N . After you have read the above posts you will see my son is on many different products. By no means could I ever say that these two supplements alone are doing the trick but they have given him GREAT improvement. He is also taking Bonnie's Grimaldi's TS-Plus which has magnesium taurate and high B vitamins. He is also on some others but they are listed in the above postings. The other thing to consider is candida. This is an overgrowth of yeast in the intestinal system. This seems to be a pretty common problem for someone with tics. So you might want to do a search on the forum about candida because there have been many postings. I am curious if you now what brand of hot dogs you feed you daughter. To me it seems pretty likely that she could be very sensitive to MSG like my son. I should also say when he does get an "overdose" of artificial, MSG, or High Fructose Corn Syrup it takes about a week to clear out of his system. But I have found to get it out of his system faster to give him epsom salts baths (2 cups in a nice full tub of water). You can even do this twice a day. Also I give him an extra boost of B6. He is 7 years old and about 59 pounds. I give him up to 100 mg's on days when his tics start to flare. It helps to get his system back into balance. I would not do the extra B6 every day, but I usually do it about once every week to two weeks). My naturopathic doctor told me to do this for him. I also have to say that when Daniel would get something in him that bothered him I would start seeing symptoms within about a hour to two hours. All of a sudden tics would increase. Although stress causes tics too and so does tiredness. I hope this helps. Just hang in there. I know from my own experience it is very frightening now knowing what to do for your child especially when they think mom and dad should have all the answers already. But there are answers. There is something triggering this and it is just a matter of finding out what it is. What greatly helped me understand what was going on with Daniel was a lot of research on this forum, doing daily food journals to track what he was eating and how bad his tics were that day, and most importantly prayer! God Bless, Carolyn

That is so funny Bonnie because I was just going to post the same thing to Faith on the forum. I just got the same message. Faith you must be very popular ! Carolyn

Hello and welcome to the forum! I just wanted to suggest you might want to post your question on the Tourettes part of the forum. By far it gets a lot more responses then the OCD portion. So my thought is you would probably get more input there then on the OCD portion. Have a great weekend ! Carolyn

Hello and welcome to the forum! Just a few things I thought of when I saw your post. Chemar, who heads up this forum, dealt with OCD on a very high level with her son. Her son also has tourettes so she created a treatment plan for both the OCD and the Tourettes. Here is the post she created for the treatments that greatly helped her son for both of these issues http://www.latitudes.org/forums/index.php?showtopic=687 . I have had OCD myself since I was a child. Here is a post of things I have done to help my situation. After you read the initial post by a person calling herself Desperate you will see my response to her http://www.latitudes.org/forums/index.php?showtopic=2623 . Some other things to consider that may help you is to start looking at it from a biological angle is you can research the link between candida and OCD. Candida is an overgrowth of yeast in the intestinal system. Believe it or not because of the link between the gut and the brain, think about how alcohol effects the brain and it is in the gut, the candida can cause problems with neurotransmitters getting distributed correctly. There are lots of posts on this forum regarding candida. Chemar used a product called "Candida Clear by Now" to help her son's candida. I have used it for myself and it certainly does help get rid of candida very effectively. My son, Daniel who is 7, is on a product called GABA. Daniel has tourettes and started showing signs of OCD type of thoughts. The GABA has really helped him. A lot of people find Inositol very effective. You can read about that on this forum too if you do a search. Many people are low in magnesium and magnesium is just crucial to a body running effectively. I have used magnesium taurate for my son. It has really helped his tics out and it also helped him stop grinding his teeth at night. Another thing to look into is something called PANDAs. Some people will experience a quick on set of OCD and a lot of times it is related to PANDAs. This has to do with the strep virus and how a persons brain has been effected by it. Once the strep is treated a lot of times the OCD goes away. You can also read a lot about PANDAs on this forum. Certainly biological factors contribute to OCD. But there is no way of saying it any other way, once I truly grasped on to God's grace and His love for me so much of these "toxic" type of thoughts just went away. I cannot explain it in human terms but I can absolutely tell you 100% Christ changed my life. I talk about that in the above post. I hope this helped and I will be praying for you. Carolyn

Hello and welcome to the forum, Just my opinion, but from what you are describing t sounds like something everyone does and not just and OCD type of thing. Hope you had a great weekend. Carolyn

Hello again Stagedoor, First I want to say how amazed again at how well you are able to convey your heart and what has been happening in your life. Not many people can write like you have and I am sure it is insightful for many. There is so much I can say about what you have written. I want to start first by addressing this part of your post and I quote from your post... "I know now I really have committed the unpardonable sin for 'It is impossible for those who were enlightened, who have tasted the heavenly gift […] if they fall away to be brought back to repentance.' Before I might have claimed blaspheming in ignorance but can I claim that now?" This is referencing the passage in Hebrews chapter 6 verse 4. Before I explain the verse and how it does not mean you can loose your salvation, I want to share with you, as briefly as I can, the story of my current pastor. It is goes directly to this issue and shows how God's grace is beyond our comprehension. My pastor, whose name is Mike, became a Christian at age 13. He spread the word of Christ to many throughout his teenage years. He had a horrible father who left their family and Mike became the one responsible for helping out his mother. Prior to his dad leaving, his dad abused the family and literally almost killed his mother. He had a lot of confusion about his family but still trusted God. When Mike was about 21 years of age Mike met a girl he fell in love with. He got to the point where he was going to ask her to marry him and she abandoned him. All of a sudden all the anger of what his father had done to him and all the anger of this girl leaving him just completely overtook him. Guess what he did. He has shared this several times with our congregation, he went into a room to pray to God for the broken heart he had and all of a sudden his prayer turned to anger and he cursed at God, literally with the "F" word, and said "if that is the kind of God you are I want absolutely nothing to do with you. I would rather rot in ######". Now if that is not blaspheming God I don't know what is. I love this part of the story..now after this occurance of yelling at God, the last place Mike ever wanted to be was in church. But, it just so happened by God's grace, he had promised a friend that he would be at church that particular Sunday after he cursed out God. While he was in the service the pastor stopped the service and said God is speaking to me right now. Someone in this congregation cursed out God this week. Mike knew it was obviously him. But God's message to him through this pastor was not one of hate but one of I still love you. It took two years but Mike came back to God because he realized God loved him no matter. The fact is God never left him. Mike only chose to not listen to God in those two years. Pastor Mike, to this day, will say he is so undeserving of God's grace and love because of what he did to God. But God is still loving Mike because of who God's nature is not because of the falleness of Mike. Pastor Mike has lead many to Christ and shares God's love everywhere he goes. By the way if you would like to listen to any of his sermons here is the link http://www.emcaz.org/Sermons.aspx . He is a great pastor! This is a real life example of who the real and living God is. He is all loving and all gracious. Look what He did He sacrificed Himself for us! Now getting back to Hebrews 6:4. The thing is if you take the passage just as it is and not in the context of the entire Bible then certainly it looks like once you have turned away from God there is no hope. But that is not at all what it is referencing. There are just way too many scriptures to contradict this. Here is a great website that lists all kinds of scriptures as to why you cannot loose your salvation http://www.truthortradition.com/modules.ph...cle&sid=127 . The one thing I know for certain is the Bible does not contradict itself so when there is a scripture that does not make sense in the light of other scripture you have to look at the context of who is the original audience the scripture was being written to and the context of the scripture that precedes and follows it. You have to make sure you have a clear understanding of the entire scripture. The point of the Hebrews Chapter 6 scripture is this. There are people who are around the truth of God, for example people in my own church, who are exposed to the truth, who have seen the Holy Spirit, God, do miracles right in front of their very eyes but they still choose not to accept Him as Lord and Savior of their lives. There is nothing left to show these people. They have seen it all and they still choose to live by their own works, in other words those things they think will please God other then accepting Christ as Savior. This scripture is not referencing a person who has God in their heart it is to a group of people who have the head knowledge of God but have never taken Him into their hearts. The Hebrews who this letter was being written to apparently were a very stubborn group of people in terms of believing that it was still their works that saved them not Christ's sacrifice. So Paul is just trying to get through to them by saying. and of course I am paraphrasing..."hey guys you have seen the truth of Christ what else can I show you. There is nothing left for me to show you to convert your hearts into accepting that Christ is indeed the only way to heaven. It is impossible for there to be anything left for you to witness that will change your heart to the truth. So you either believe or you still go about thinking that your works can save you". We know clearly by Ephesians Chapter 2 verse 8 "For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith-and not from yourselves it is the gift of God-not by works so that no one can boast." So again it comes back to the fact it is NOT works of ourselves that save us but our faith in Christs completed work. I thought you might like this link that explains this whole Hebrews chapter 6 passage real well http://www.biblebb.com/files/macqa/1301-O-15.htm . Again it goes to the point that this passage is referencing people who have seen every thing they could possible see of God but never accept Him as Lord and Savior. They still want to do things their own way. I, myself as a Christian, have gone through periods of time where I have just been tormented in thinking thoughts of God that are just horrible and all I want is for them to go away. But I can tell you God clearly showed me in, in one of these obsessive thought moments, that there is there is nothing I can think of or say about Him that can change His Holiness, His Righteousness, or His steadfast love. I finally came to understand that God was not looking at what thoughts I could come up with about Him in my head. Certainly there are millions of ugly thoughts we can come up with that are unbearable but God was and is looking at my heart for Him. The exact reason I hated these thoughts so much is because I love Him and He knows that. One thing that became very clear to me, about 3 years ago, is I had labeled myself OCD since my early 20's when I finally understood what label to brand myself with thanks to a psychologist. Prior to this I had no clue what was wrong with me. After being labeled OCD ..when I thought of myself I would first think "well I am OCD" person. Kind of like if I was an alcoholic I would have said to myself "well I am an alcoholic". But God showed me something 3 years ago that that labeling myself as OCD is not who I am in His economy. I am a Christian first who happens to also be dealing with obsessive thoughts. The same be said of a Christian who is dealing with alcoholism. God does not define that person as an "alcoholic" that is only by our human definitions. God looks at that Christian as a person struggling with alcohol but He does not define that person by the alcohol. In other words I am not defined by God as OCD but a child of His. Once I removed that label from my foremost thinking and started looking at my obsessive thoughts through His definitions I started to see the hope that I was not predestined to be OCD because God can change everything including our patterns of thinking. From what I am reading of your writing you believe because you have these intrusive and horrific thoughts of God that you have been preprogrammed by Him to never be able to be accepted by Him. I cannot tell you how far off from the truth that is. That is exactly what the Bible would classify as trying to be saved by your own works. In other words because you cannot stop thinking ugly thoughts you cannot be presentable to God? Why do you think Christ died on the cross? It is because we are all imperfect and He knows none of us could have lived up to the standard of perfection. You are trying to think perfect thoughts to please Him when all he wants from you is to accept that He died for you because you are not perfect and He loves us UNCONDITIONALLY in spite of your thoughts. God is looking at your heart for one thing and one thing only and that is faith in His Son's completed work on the cross and resurrection. That is it there is no more you can offer Him. There is no string of perfect thoughts you could ever come up with that would please Him. That is all considered works and again Ephesians chapter 2 could not be more clear that we are not saved by our own goodness but by His grace! If you have the opportunity you should read up on the life of Martin Luther, the great reformer, who brought the truth of grace back into the Christian church hundreds of years ago . For a lot of his life he dealt with obsessive thoughts about God and trying to fight back thoughts. But God clearly showed him, after years of torment, exactly what I am sharing with you that it is God's grace that saves us through Christ....not our own ability to hold back thoughts. This man, Martin Luther, went on to be a great man in Christian history because of God showed him the truth of His grace. Regarding your reference to the first Chapter of James where it is addressed to "But when he asks he must believe and not doubt, because he who doubts is like a wave of the sea, blown and tossed by the wind. That man should not think he will receive anything from the Lord; he is a double-minded man, unstable in all he does". I think where you are is you feel since God made you to be OCD how can you ever get beyond this passage so God will always deny you. The first thing I have to say is if you think logicially about this then how can I, who also has OCD, have seen God's amazing grace and love in my life? I have seen Him absolutely do miracles in my life and if I was preprogrammed by Him to doubt Him why am I so confident in Him? How is it I corresponded, on this very forum, with other Christians who are OCD. They are able to have faith in Christ. In spite of the OCD thoughts there is a part of us, in our hearts, that shows God our faith in Him. That is what He is looking at. Certainly, faith in God is not based on the thoughts we come up about Him, again we can come up with all kinds of things especially if we are focused in on those types of thoughts, but again God is looking deeper at our hearts for Him. I can have faith and yucky thoughts at the same time. I know this to be true because I have experienced this on numerous occasions. The Bible tells us it is faith the size of a mustard seed that can move mountains (Matthew chapter 17 verse 20). Have you ever seen how tiny a mustard seed is? The fact is if I am worried I am going to think bad thoughts of God or whoever it might be guess what is going to happen I am going to think those thoughts. There is no way around this because when we tell ourselves we can't think of something of course we are thinking about it. The trying to stop thoughts is anxiety and that is what you are dealing with. The only thing you can do is start telling truth over that anxiety. The truth that God loves you in spite of those thoughts and His love for you is deeper then we can ever imagine. Ephesians Chapter 3 verse 17 "And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, may have power, together with all the saints, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, and to know this love that surpasses knowledge-that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God". Regarding Pharoh's heart being hardened I know this is a big conversation I have had over the years in Bible study. I found this website that I really helps explain the full context of this part of the Bible http://members.aol.com/twarren13/pharaoh.html . I know this was long but the main point I want to get across to you is you are first a child of God. You are not to be defined by OCD but by who God sees you as. Please stop looking at this by our worldly labels but as God your creator sees you. I love in 1st Corinthians Chapter 1 verse 25 it states "For the foolishness of God is wiser than man's wisdom, and the weakness of God is stronger than man's strength". In other words, we may think we are wise in our human ways of defining people and ways of life but God's ways are higher and mightier than all human wisdom. He sees things from the clear perspective.....we don't! I really do think you would benefit greatly by reading Bob George's "Classic Christianity". Here again is the website http://store.silaspartners.com/merchant.mv...Category_Code=B and I still would be happy to mail you my extra copy. It goes exactly into the heart of getting your head wrapped around how God sees us not how the world sees us. If you are interested in me sending you my extra copy you can send me a personal e-mail, through the forum, by just clicking on my name on the side of this posting. God indeed does love you and I believe with ALL MY HEART he is using me to tell you this! I have absolutely no doubt and again that is coming from someone who has done a lot of doubting in her life!!!! Carolyn

Hello and welcome to the forum, Wow....you so well described OCD. I am very impressed with the depth you are able to convey of how OCD intrudes into a person's life. I too have had OCD since I was a child. My main OCD thoughts have centered around the fear of germs, fear of hurting others, and fear of thinking unwanted thoughts of God. I had all the classic symptoms as a child like having to count, my number was 10, before I could believe something was actually turned off. I created a whole world, within my mind, of if this happens then I must do that to redirect fate. So I completely understand where you are coming from. I lived it for many years. What completely changed my entire world is when I finally grasped that the restrictions and false reality of fear, I was living in, was not at all what God had planned for my life. It was awesome when I realized that God was in indeed the one in ultimate control. The control I thought I had was indeed just an illusion. I came to a whole other place of peace that is indescribable. I went from high states of fear to a an unexplainable joy that God loved me and I could trust Him no matter what. He had the best plan possible for me. Even when life seems to be falling apart, God still has a plan. Trusting that He will get you through it makes all the difference. I know looking back on my life with OCD the reason I created all the parameters in my mind, of the if this happens I must do that, was because I had no understanding of God's truths so I was trying to create my own reality of what controls things. What an AMAZING relief to find out you do not have to live that way any longer. In 1993, the year I got married, a friend and neighbor who was a pastor did some premarital counseling with my husband and me. We went through all kinds of things like how we would handle finances, children and the general everyday things you deal with marriage. The pastor wanted to make sure my husband and my marriage could have the best possible chance at success. Well the very last time we met we discussed religion. The pastor asked us if we where to die today and we were standing before God why would He say we could stay in Heaven. I was thinking, to myself, well I am an overall good person so why would He not let me in. I soon quickly understood I was missing the biggest part of life and it literally changed my whole world. The pastor explained to my husband and I that Christ had done everything for us by dieing on the cross for our sin. The Bible makes it very clear all of us have sinned against God you can read this in the Book of Romans Chapter 3 verses 10-18. But the next very important part is Christ was raised back to life on the 3rd day which indeed proved He had victory over death. Now the only thing that was left was having faith that Christ did this for us and to accept Him as our Savior and Lord of our lives. That night, after the pastor showing us many scriptural references to this truth, my husband and I both asked Christ into our lives. I can absolutely promise you that God has transformed my thinking and my life's perspective in more ways then I could ever express. My husband and I started attending a really good Bible based church. We started going to Bible studies and actually learning what our Creator had to say about how He wants us to have faith in Him and that He loves us beyond measure. All this transformed my mind and to levels I cannot explain. The Bible references this transformation in the book of Romans chapter 12 verse 2 "Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of you mind". This means get into God's word, the Bible, and learn what He has to say about you and who He is in your life. So now all the OCD restrictions I created in my own mind's reality meant absolutely nothing because I really could grasp why they were false. It took away that fear inside of me knowing God is indeed in control and I can trust Him. Now do I still battle with OCD on a certain level. The answer is yes but it ALWAYS revolves around one thing. It is when I take my eyes off of His truth and start looking at things again from my own vantage point not from Gods. I know the Bible can seem very overwhelming. A great place to start is in the book of John or otherwise known as the Gospel of John. It is the fourth book in the New Testament in the Bible. Another GREAT resource is a book called Classic Christianity by Bob George http://store.silaspartners.com/merchant.mv...Category_Code=B . I have read it several times and it REALLY helped me get my head wrapped around God's grace and that He is not this mean God who is just out to get us. He is a loving God reaching out to us and waiting for us to say Yes I will accept your offer to save me. I actually have an extra copy of this book and I would be more then happy to send it to you if you send me an address I can mail it to. I am heading out for vacation over the weekend, we will be gone for a week, so if you are interested I can send it before I leave or I can send it in a couple of weeks. Another GREAT book is called "The Case for Christ" by Lee Strobel. Lee Strobel had been an atheist and was out to disprove Christianity and the Bible once and for all. His profession in life was an investigative journalist and he had a law background. So he knew how to thoroughly investigate. Well his whole world was changed upside down when the overwhelming evidence should him that Christ was indeed God and the Bible was absolultey reliable. He then wrote the exact opposite book he had planned and wrote how much evidence there is for Christ and how you can prove the Bible is absolutely true. I HIGHLY recommend this book. I know it may sound like I am some super religious person but the fact is I am far from it. Religion is man's attempt to create a way to God. What I have is a RELATIONSHIP with God and it is only because of what Christ did for me that this is even possible. I know you have had a very difficult life. But I want you to know there is absolute hope and it is coming of the true understanding of why God made you and who God indeed is. God made you to love on you and for you to love Him. I know many people have gone through absolutely horrible things in life and you think how can a loving God allow such things to happen. But the reality is this is just one part of our lives the next part comes after we die. God is looking at a picture much bigger then our perspective. All I know is I have heard absolutely horrific stories of what people have had to deal with in life but for those, who understand that God's purposes are higher and he loves them greatly, they see a perspective that is beyond human understanding. From one OCD suffer to another please hold out hope that there are answers. God will show you the truth when you ask Him to show you. I know He will because I have seen it so many times in my own life and in the lives of others. He is indeed faithful to show Himself those who seek Him. Here is a link to another part of the forum where I responded to another person who called herslef Desperate. I shared with her thing things I have done for helping my OCD. Just in case you are interested here is the link http://www.latitudes.org/forums/index.php?showtopic=2623 . Thank you so much for sharing your incredible OCD story. I know it hits home with many, many people! Carolyn

Bonnie, VERY Interesting! Would you consider testing him for heavy metals. It could certainly be that part of the picture you are dealing with is good old mercury! Mercury binds up the sulfation system from what I have read. There are ways to clear it out of the system. Interestingly the NAC supplement Daniel is on helps detox the body from mercury. I can't wait to hear what foods show up! Carolyn

Hello and welcome, I just wanted to add, since you mentioned puberty, that I came across this article http://www.autism.com/ari/editorials/ed_pu...ionseizures.htm that mentions the bodies increased need for B6 during this time. One thing that seems to be important in helping control tics is B vitamins including B6. I have wondered if one reason tics increase during the puberty time is because the body has this increased demand for B6 to help with the hormone production. So now you have a person with tics, who is already low in B6, whose body needs even more during this time but perhaps is not getting enough through supplements. This obviously is just my theory but I thought I would pass it along. I give my son Daniel who is 7 100 mg's of B6 on days his tics have greatly increased. He normally gets around 30 mg's. My naturopathic doctor told me his body could use that high of an amount. Carolyn

Hi Faith, As a matter of fact, I did do some things to help his body when he started the head shake tic. I gave him extra B6 about 70 mg's for several days and an extra 100 mg's of magnesium taurtate (this is on top of his standard amount). We made him scrabbled eggs for the extra sulfur, several days in a row, and I gave him epsom salts baths. I also have epsom salts creme, magnesium sulfate creme, I ordered through Kirkman Labs and I was putting that on him too. I was able to do all these things once I got to my in-laws house. What I realized, of course after our bags were checked into the plane already, next time I need to carry the magnesium sulfate creme with me and also keep on hand a B6 just to help boost his system if he starts up. Obviously he finds traveling pretty exciting so it makes sense to me it could increase tics also not to mention on the planes the most exciting thing to a child is getting the free soda full of high fructose corn syrup. Speaking of the free soda on the airplane, my friend informed me who is a flight attendant for U.S. Airways, in a couple months we get to pay $2 per soda drink on U.S. Airways. What are they going to do next take away the seats? Regarding the magnesium sulfate creme, I think on airlines you cannot carry liquid on the plane that is more then 4oz's so it would just have to be a small amount of the magnesium creme. Faith, hope you summer has been a good one so far! Carolyn

Tracey, Thank you so much for posting your success with NAC. I am very happy for your family that it has worked as well for you all as it has for us. I can only hope and pray it is the case for other's too. Carolyn

Hi Mom2Three, It is so difficult for me to say how much you should give your daughter. I did question the amount the original Naturopath recommended for Daniel to take. The front office person told me that is the standard they usually recommend of NAC for children. I also ran it by my other Naturopathic doctor, who is in a completely different doctor's office, and she told me that the dosage of NAC seemed right to her. Although she said she had never used it for children for the purposes of which I was giving it to Daniel. From what I have read it seems like the standard for adults is around 600 mg's and this is what made me start questioning the dosage. But after two doctors confirming this seemed to be the right amount for him, for the purposes I am using it to help process food toxins, I have just gone with it. You certainly could start with 600 mg's and see what this would do and if you would see results at that amount. I know the second Naturopathic doctor I ran it by made a comment to me that I probably would not see a whole lot of results with a dosage as low as 200 mg. Regarding the potassium bicarbonate I have not purchased this other then through my doctors office. I did a quick google and could not find a place just to buy it for the sake of taking it orally. It seems they sell it to change the PH balance of wine. I am going to be getting more potassium bicarbonate this week at my doctor's office. So I will ask them, when I am in there on Thursday, where do most people buy this. When we give Daniel the dosage it is a 1/4 tsp a day. I don't know if over time it could change the acid levels of the stomach and I suppose I should check into this. I have been giving it to him every day but it may be I should only give it to him when he is having noticeable tics. I will ask this question when I am at the doctor's this week too. Regarding the increase in tics around Christmas this is when we I saw a BIG increase in tics with Daniel. I completely know for him it had everything to do with the diet of artificial foods, high fructose corn syrup, and MSG he had been exposed to with all the "extra" treats of Christmas. I hope this helps. I am sorry for not being able to give you absolutely definitive answer. After I am at the doctor this week I will hopefully have more answers for you. Carolyn

Hello everyone, It has been a while. We have been having a busy summer and I have not had much time to check the board. But I just wanted to do a quick update regarding Daniel and all the supplements he is on. Daniel, for the most part has been doing great. But I did want to post that I realized I found the limit to how much the supplements can control his tics when exposed to artificial products or high levels of stress. We went of vacation in June to Oregon to see family. I had seen next to no tics for quite some time even though I had been giving him a little more freedom with artificial food dyes and high fructose corn syrup. But still absolutely no MSG. As we were going through security at the airport all of a sudden, he must have a a rush of adrenaline, he started doing a head shaking tic. It lasted about a solid day and slowly went away. This past week we had a potluck at my house. Absolutely I was not thinking and let him have good old macaroni and cheese somebody made from a box. I am sure it had yellow dye in it because he started chewing on things after he had it. He use to chew on things all the time before we changed his diet and added the supplements. For example, he would chew his shirts until they were soaking wet, pillow, cloth in general, toys, etc. The list goes on and on. But once we made the changes in his diet all the chewing went away until he gets an overdose again. If you read Dr. Feingold's information he talks about how chewing on cloth is a sign of artificial food dye intolerance. The other thing that is so interesting is when his tics flare back up guess what else flares back up ANXIETY. There is certainly no doubt in my mind that the two certainly wax and wane on the same rhythm within his body. So the long and short of it is he still has minimal ticcing when exposed to high stress moments or still too much artificial for his body. But I have to say overall I am very pleased with the results I am seeing him on the supplements we have him on. Hope every ones summer is going great so far. Carolyn

Hello and welcome, Well as to your question regarding whether you have OCD I unfortunately cannot answer that for you. But I did want to share with you what I have done for my unwanted thoughts. Here is a copy of a post I replied to a person calling herself "desperate". Anyhow I hope it helps http://www.latitudes.org/forums/index.php?showtopic=2623 . Hang in there. There is hope for unwanted thoughts. Carolyn

Hello and welcome to the forum! I wanted to share with you a few posts I did regarding what you are dealing with. I have had OCD since I was a child. Here are the posts. On this one it is under posts number 39, 42, and 44 http://www.latitudes.org/forums/index.php?...c=758&st=30 and this one I responded to a woman who called herself Desperate http://www.latitudes.org/forums/index.php?showtopic=2623 . God bless and hang in there. I promise you there are answers! Carolyn

Caryn, Very interesting information. Thanks for posting it! Carolyn

Faith, I will certainly be praying for answers for you. I know you have done so much research for your son. I am positive you have made a big difference in him with the things you have done already. The question is where would he be if you had not made dietary changes and added supplement? He could be far worse right now. Hang in there and don't give up hope. Sometimes it is difficult to understand God's timing, in showing us what we have been asking of Him, but I always hold on to the fact that He does know absolutely every answer and His timing is perfect. God Bless, Carolyn

Hi Mary, Daniel has never had the IgG done. He has only had the testing done similar to NAET, which you can read about at this website http://www.naet.com/ , called NEAT. The NEAT helped me narrow down his sensitivities but mainly I came to understand his sensitivies through doing the food journals. I started really seeing the pattern to his insensitivity's to MSG, High Fructose Corn Syrup, and artificial colors. What is really difficult for me to gauge with Daniel is I have done the NEAT program on him literally since he was a baby. I obviously had no idea, when he was a baby, that he would end up with tics in his life. But I wonder if we had not done the NEAT so long perhaps he would have a very long list of sensitivities. Obviously I will never know. I would highly recommend NEAT to people, because they do test for hundreds of allergies in one visit unlike NAET, but the problem is I don't think it is offered outside of Arizona. It was a doctor who developed it in Phoenix and I think only two offices in Arizona even do the treatment. I might be wrong though. But the doctor who developed it is named Dr. Konrad Kail. I know he wrote a book about allergies and the NEAT treatment. It discusses why NEAT works but I don't think it is in print any longer. I do not go to Dr. Kail any longer I go to Dr. Orona at Naturopathic Family Care. She is absolutely a wonderful doctor. Regarding the supplements I give Daniel, if you go to this post and scroll down in the very first post of the thread I list the supplements http://www.latitudes.org/forums/index.php?...Carolyn+N\ . I can absolutely attest to the fact that the supplements have done miracles for my son. I don't know where he would be without them. It is literally the difference of night and day for him with the diet changes and supplements. Let me know if you have any further questions. Carolyn

Faith, Faith, I am so sorry I did not get to your post earlier. I only had a few minutes on the forum earlier today and knew I would not have time to respond completely to your questions. So here we go........................ Regarding the Potassium Bicarbonate, the doctor just decided to try mixing the NAC with it. But what happened is it got real gummy mixed together. So this time when he gave them to me he kept the products separate. Also, you do not have to take the products together. The doctor was just going off of my discussion with him regarding sulfation and thought to try these two things two products together. The reason I put them in capsules is Daniel is tired of me "mixing" things into juice or whatever have you. He has no problem in swallowing capsules. So we bought a BIG bottle of empty capsules from the Vitamin Shoppe Internet site. We just pack the powder in them and he swallows them down. Regarding the B6, I don't know the answer as to how often you could give that high a dose. I know I was doing it about once a week for about 6 weeks. But I cannot say how much is too much. Perhaps someone else on the forum might know the answer to that question. Faith, I noticed you said he does better in early summer. Does this mean when he is out of school completely? I am just wondering if this could be a correlation to either not eating school lunches, which I am positive some of the lunches like the chicken nuggets would contain MSG, or do you think there could be any correlation to fluorescent lights at school? I know fluorescent lights can cause problems in some people. Have you ever noticed his tics increase around certain lighting? I understand where you are going with the cat. It does not seem to make that big of a difference for him with what you have done for him. But have you ever had him tested for cat dander? I do know it is one of the top allergies for people . Carolyn