OCDgirl21

I suggest first getting a proper diagnosis from a child psychologst and follow their advice on how to best treat your son based on the severity of his symptoms. DO NOT try to force your son to stop performing his compulsions because this will cause him severe anxiety and overwhelm him with obsessive thoughts. You need to understand that if your son truly has OCD (and it sounds like he does but again you need a proper diagnosis) he is performing these rituals (touching things, repeating words etc.) because he has obsessive thoughts that cause him so much anxiety that he is required to perform these actions and not performing them would result in severe overwhelming anxiety. I was a child sufferer of OCD and from my personal experience I can say that the best thing you can do for your son is to suport him through this disease. He will probably suffer from it in some form for his entire life and you need to accept that as a parent and learn to help your son cope with his symtpoms. Forcing a child with OCD to stop perfoming his/her rituals is the WORST thing you can do. People with OCD especially children can not just stop perfoming their compulsions as doing sao results in severe anxiety and overwhelming obsessive thoughts. Also do not let the psyhcoloigts drug your son up. Remember that many of them are there to sell drugs as this is how they pay their rent. Be aware of this and do what YOU think is best for your son based on the psychologts suggestions. Do not be afraid to get a second opinion if something doesn't sound right.

Hello all. I am a lifelong OCD sufferer who is going off to college in the fall and really need some support. I would like to share my story with you. I have suffered from very severe OCD for my entire life. I was hospitalized on my 14th birthday a few weeks into my freshmen year of high school because my symptoms became so severe that I was not able to eat or function and had dropped into a starvation state. I was medicated with prozac and antipsychotics (risperdone) all through high school and was basically a zombie the entire time. I don't really remember high school very much. I gained 100 lbs. on risperdone and my senior year I finally said enough is enough and stopped taking it about a month before I graduated in 2006. At this point I was almost 18 and supposed to be going off to college but I was so behind developmentally that this was simply not possible so I opted to go to a community college and try to transfer. Now I'm 21 and for the past 3 1/2 years I have been going to a community college. I finished up in December and have been waiting this semester at home to transfer. I have come so far yet I've hit another crisis I have developed an unaxplained medical condition involving unexplained pain and ringing in my ears (tinnitus) that my doctors are unable to diagnose much less treat and my severe OCD symptoms are returning as a result of the anxiety involved with not knowing what is wrong with me. I have been accepted into UCLA and am supposed to be starting there in a few months. I am finally supposed to be getting my chance to be go off to college and have that experience that I never got in high school or at the community college but my symptoms are increasing. I'v gone back on prozac but have seen no improvement in my symptoms. I know I can't go back on risperdone because it makes me a zombie and doesn't really do much for my severe OCD anyway. I want the chance to go off to college so bad yet I know that if I go live on my own for the first time in this state I might crash and burn. I'm really looking for some support or advice from someone here who can maybe help me. Thank you