Seeking Help for 16 Year Old Son w/ ocd/add/tourettes?

[ajoy64]

Just stumbled on this forum and decided to join w/ the hope it can help my 16 yr old son and also help me to understand him better. I have to admit first of all that it has been very hard for me to deal w/ his strange behavior. I am constantly telling him to "stop it" and telling him to stop drawing attention to himself. I would describe his behavior as weird. I feel like a bad mom for not having the patience with him that i should and also for not understanding that as hard as it is for me to watch him go thru his "nonsense" it must be 100x more difficult for him to have to go thru it. He has had OCD and ADD since he was little. Since pre school the teachers would tell me he is preoccupied in class and does not pay attention. He could just stare out the window all day. As he got older things got progressively worse and he started making strange noises. When I ask him why he does it he tells me he just had to "get the noise out". He has been to different doctors his whole life and on and off several medications. He has tried Paxil, Luvox, Lexipro and he is now on Prozac. Nothing has really helped that much. I guess it did a little bit and then we would hit a brick wall. My husband has read about Inositol and my son is starting to take it. Maybe another teen can shed some light on how it is to live like my son lives. He does live a normal life otherwise, has friends, plays video games and guitar. Also, he is a great kid and I really want to help his self esteem by him not thinking he is the only one like this. Any ideas would be helpful!

[CarolynN]

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

[ajoy64]

I guess I did not make it clear that OCD is his main problem. Counting, repeating, rituals, touching and retouching, tapping things, obsessive thoughts etc. So many things also"bother" him. And, although we have noticed vocal tics over the years, it has gotten much worse. He is now just making odd noises at inappropriate times. I actually don't even know what my question is. I guess it is just hard for me to understand how to deal with him without getting upset that he has to go thru this. We just moved and I don't want him to be labeled the "weird" kid. Should I just ignore things or make him aware that he is doing it?

[ilovedogs]

I guess I did not make it clear that OCD is his main problem. Counting, repeating, rituals, touching and retouching, tapping things, obsessive thoughts etc. So many things also"bother" him. And, although we have noticed vocal tics over the years, it has gotten much worse. He is now just making odd noises at inappropriate times. I actually don't even know what my question is. I guess it is just hard for me to understand how to deal with him without getting upset that he has to go thru this. We just moved and I don't want him to be labeled the "weird" kid. Should I just ignore things or make him aware that he is doing it?

Well, if he has Tourette's tics then I'd say that asking him to stop probably won't help. He might be able to supress them for a while but they'll come out later. I think you should try posting on the Tourette section b/c many of us deal with OCD. There are moms who have tried alternative therapies for ADD, OCD, SID, and Tourette's/PANDAS. Anyway, I have read that Inositol helps with OCD. Find a post by Chemar and click on her link about the supplements that helped her son. He's 18 and had severe TS symptoms and severe OCD. They have treated him without medication and he's done very well. You'll just find way more information over there, even if his OCD is his main problem.

 

Bonnie

[Chemar]

hi

 

my son also has TS with OCD and the OCD has always been the worst aspect for him. We have also learned the tics and OCD can sometimes be linked so they morph

 

we tried prescription meds but things only got worse. Supplements like inositol, methionine etc really helped.

 

do come on over to the TS forum as we have lots of discussions there on the OCD part of TS and it is a far more active forum so many of the parents there may not see your posts here

http://www.latitudes.org/forums/index.php?showforum=1