She has seen so many doctoes, ocd specialist psychologists and psychiatrists, been in a mental health facility, been to hospital and no one has been able to help. Tried lots of different meds but none are helping. It's ruining her life. I dont know what to do. We've tried everything but she is getting worse. Any ideas?
I don’t have many ideas but I’ve been there I have pretty severe treatment resistant ocd. Much like your daughter I’ve been inpatient and been to the ER I’ve seen a bunch of therapists and consistently do ERP therapy. None of it has worked much to be honest but I keep trying. The one thing that has helped a tiny bit is antipsychotics.
I'm so sorry that you are going through all this. It's so hard. I'm glad you keep trying. Antipsychotics is on my possibility list. She's so shut down at the moment. Thankyou for your reply x
I don’t know if you are Christian, but nevertheless, talk to Him. He healed me and I trust He can heal your daughter. Receive prayer from people at your church. Stay strong. ♥️♥️♥️
Thankyou...her Grandma prays for her every day x
Have you tried ERP therapy?
She has tried so many times but she is at a stage where she can't touch most of her things. It's heartbreaking.
@FreeSpirit Oh I am so so sorry. A lot of times in OCD, we need PERMISSION to break the rules. The OCD creates so many rules around us, and it feels dangerous to break them. We feel like something bad will happen if we break them, and that we are responsible for preventing that bad thing from happening. There has to be a mental mindset shift where we are either 1.) willing to take the RISK to break the rules 2.) or we feel like we have permission to break the rules. This is where faith comes in. I don't know if you are people of faith? But Faith can help on both of these points. I would probably have a really hard time breaking the rules unless I had faith that God would protect me even after I did things I thought were dangerous. I also realized that my faith gave me permission to break the rules, because I realized that God wanted me to have freedom instead of being tangled in all of the mess . I used to have 130+ rules a day. They changed often, but they kept me completely restricted. I had a hard time going to doctor's, cooking food, taking my kids to their events, or even just talking to people. I was suffering immensely. I felt like I was drowning. I was not functional hardly at all. I would stop everything I was doing for hours at a time and be stuck in my head. But now I'm doing really well. I still have struggles, but I am a million times better, and I am not following these hundred plus "rules" a day. I have learned so much. If you want to talk more, I'm right here, and I super enjoy talking to people on this app. It makes me glad to be able to talk to people here. And we could talk from a faith-based perspective or not (depending on what you want). I'm so sorry about the suffering your daughter is going through. And I'm a mom myself. So I understand both perspectives of how hard it is. It's hard on the person with OCD, but it is also very hard on the parents. OCD is one of the worst things that people can go through. So I know how much pain you are in. I'm here if you want to talk :):):):) I might be able to help you understand some of the twisted "logic" behind the OCD. People with OCD like us are not crazy. It's just that our reasoning has gotten twisted into these extreme views of danger. OCD works the same way on everybody, and the roots are the same. But it will have different manifestations, depending on the personality of the individual. If no one has ever talk to you on a deep level about how OCD works, that might be a really useful discussion to have.
@Tea and Honey Thankyou for taking the time to respond with such a thoughtful message. We are more spiritual than religious. She is just exhausted and over it and feels she has tried everything. She could try more things but she says she just can't and nothing works. She is trapped. I suggested another med, fluvoxamine... so she's now taking that. It's helping a little. I hate the thought of her having more meds (she takes others for other health issues) and so does she. I've suggested re trying respiradone, but the lowest dose to see if that helps. I hate all the side affects for her but I'm thinking at this stage, if they work, its better than ocd fully controlling her life. Then if it works, in time, she can wean off them. Its such a hard journey. It sounds like you have been on a difficult journey too...so kind of you chatting to other people to help them not feel so alone in it all.
@FreeSpirit I have been on Prozac (fluoxetine) for a long time. The side effects are are not bad at all. It's been really good for me. Do you think the therapists she went to were good? Knowledgeable? It makes a big difference who you use for therapy
I am going thorough a similar dilemma. I am 22 and been suffering with ocd since a young age. I have been using medication for years but it hasn’t been working well. My therapist helps me during the moment but between sessions I go down a rabbit hole . I don’t have severe contamination but I shower frequently. I would maybe begin a tms treatment plan. It is a non invasive procedure I am thinking about it as well
Sorry to hear that...it shouldn't be this hard for everyone to get help. So frustrating. I've looked into tms and doing more research. Thankyou. Good luck with it. Please let us know how you go x
^ also try abilfy as I might begin that if my increase meds don’t pan out
Oh yes, I think she may have tried that.... I'll have to check.
Hello, i have very severe contamination ocd, and as i am writing this i feel my hands are dirty lol, but anyways i wanted to know if there’s anyone specialised in Contamination ocd? No matter what type because i really need help and i looked up things but it doesn’t help please!!
My daughter was just diagnosed with OCD, and is in denial. Her brother is the source of contamination for her. Everything he does, triggers her. She will not be in the same room as him, and it's only getting worse. If you were a child in denial, refusing medication and therapy, what helped you to finally accept help?
My little sister is 13 we’ve taken her to a child psychologist and she was diagnosed with OCD and social anxiety and I believe germaphobia. The psychologist said that he can’t properly diagnose her with autism until her anxiety symptoms are treated. But I am very positive that she is also autistic as I am autistic and know the symptoms vary well. She was given a medication at a low dose, I don’t remember what kind, she had been taking it even tho she did not want to for a couple of months. It seemed to be helping her anxiety immensely but I believe she is scared of how the medication changes how she feels and she doesn’t like the taste. So they switched medications and that one was even worse because the taste was too strong she didn’t even try it for more than a day so there’s no way of knowing if that one was better for her or not. These are both liquid medications btw we used juice for her to drink it. Since then she hasn’t taken any medication and she has said that she doesn’t want to. We can’t force her to take the medication as that would obviously be counter productive. But since then her ocd and germaphobia have gotten progressively worse. On top of not wanting medication she doesn’t like the idea of using any coping skills like deep breaths or breathing exercises to calm down and doesn’t like the idea when I talk about ERP or therapy or any kind of treatment that could help. It seems all the ideas either make her uncomfortable or scare her. I fear somewhat that my own ocd compulsions have made her think that this is normal and doesn’t need treatment and I don’t know what to do to help understand that treatment and change isn’t scary. I also fear that I’m not approaching this right and my mom doesn’t understand ocd like I do so I feel like it falls on me to help her through this and help my mom understand what we need to do to help her. I’m sorry this is so long. thank you for reading this. She’s really struggling and it’s affecting my own mental health too and I don’t know what to do. If anyone has any tips or advice please that’s all I’m asking for.
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