Girlie1

Dear Snowbear thanks so much for your helpful reply and kind comments. I will encourage my daughter to check out the forums, and I'm really hopeful she will reach out to others when she needs advice. I have shown her the young ambassadors already..that looks like a great initiative. Best wishes.

Hi my daughter, a very hard working 6th former has been suffering from intrusive thoughts for a few years. I had them myself when young and well into adulthood but managed them by talking to my mum, a close friend and was mercifully able to have a happy and normal life. Our daughter has become socially isolated and so quiet, like all parents on this forum I guess, we feel desperately sad about it. And guilty for not having her properly assessed sooner when a diagnosis would have been taken into account when they grade her cancelled A levels. Instead as it didn't seem too bad we saw our Gp, tried talking therapy and then hypnotherapy which helped to a degree before realising it was more serious. Getting NHS help would have taken too long during the pandemic so we have now had her privately assessed and she has started weekly CBT sessions online for now. The diagnosis was of mild OCD, no outward compulsions but the complication is that one of her obsessions is thinking she smells bad (which she absolutely doesn't). This means she could have Olfactory Reference Syndrome which seems quite rare. Obviously the lockdown and cancellation of A levels has brought such uncertainty and put a stop to what little social life she had. She is our only child and we are doing everything we can to support her, learn about OCD etc. We encourage her to have a routine, exercise etc Being a hard worker she has managed to do fairly well with her A level courses and has had good offers for uni. She had already deferred her place to 2021 and had hoped to try to get a job/do a bit of travelling with her close friend before all this got worse. I am now worried that she won't be able to do any of it. Her confidence is at an all time low, she gets anxious just going to the local shops. We have so many questions, how will she cope at uni, will she have to tell prospective employers about the diagnosis? Should she try medication (as she does have spells of being fine she has resisted that so far and had wanted to try the CBT first). And has anyone else experience of Olfactory Reference Syndrome..if that's what she has. We feel fortunate that her symptoms are pretty mild so far but seeing the distress they cause her, my heart really goes out to everyone facing this condition. My late Dad was an alcoholic and the best thing for me was meeting people in the same boat through Al A Teen ( via AA ), so I wanted to explore support groups for her sake and ours. Any feedback welcome, many thanks in advance.