I’m new to this forum and wanted to introduce myself

[thethreejaysmom]

Hello all-
I am a mother of a child with OCD, my son is now 11 years old and was diagnosed about 2 and a half years ago with OCD, (he is mainly obsessed with germs and contaminants and a compulsive washer but he moves them around all the time to hide them) after months of seeing several different doctors.
His OCD seems to have ups and downs sometimes he is consumed by it and other times it's bearable. He is in therapy and on medication, he currently takes Zoloft and Risperdall. He really doesn't like the meds (neither do I) but he is really not functional without them.
Life can get so bad for him, I can barely get him out of his room and out of the house unless he could change his clothes 1st, wash his hands (his ritual is very involved and take about 4 minutes, only at the kitchen sink, with a kitchen towel to dry) or shower (this is an hour at least) and never touching anything (any family member, doorknobs, lights switches the wall etc..) or it would have to begin again. Then when he would reenter his room or come home it begins again.
He goes through a bottle of hand soap a day, about ten hand towels (they cannot be used more than once if he thinks someone else may have touched them) and 3 or 4 sets of clothes. I can go on and on with way he must do things, but you can get the idea.
He is a very smart child and most people don’t know, unless they spend a bit of time with him. He can do things very secretively and sometimes even “turn it off” as he says but once he is back at home, his safe place, he cannot control the OCD.
Hindsight is a wonderful thing, I can remember, as young as 2 the odd things he did but they really didn't interfere with his life. I just thought he was a very clean and organized child. He is also my 1st and I was very accommodating to his requests (still am-it avoids a meltdown) for thing to be just so. I am also a very clean and organized person so I just thought he was following suit.
Sorry for the long intro-
Jeniffer
thethreejaysmom

[Linda in MI]

Hi,

I have been lurking on this board for quite a while now. I have a 9-year-old son who was diagnosed with OCD 10 months ago. Jeniffer, I can relate to much of what you are going through. My son is also obsessed with germs and is a compulsive washer. He is on Prozac and sees his therapist weekly. He is much improved from where he was last spring, but we still see the ups and downs in his behavior - lately more downs than ups. I understand completely about the excessive use of hand soap, towels, and clothes! Reading this board has been very helpful and reassuring to me. At least I know that we are not alone in this journey!

Linda