Girlie1

Hello Summer9173 thankyou so much for that kind and helpful response. I'm particularly grateful for the feedback about the pill and will pass that on. Also, thank goodness we all agreed that roaccutane was a bad idea and that she herself chose to avoid it. She says herself she would rather cope with acne than worsening mental health. She is home from uni at the weekend and I will share all these helpful replies with her and recommend the groups. I'm so grateful I found this forum and I wish you well for your own issues with Ocd and your skin. You are very brave yourself and everyone on here that helps others is doing a really good thing.

Hello again Bev53 may I ask what that means please so we can be sure to check. We have contacted the therapist with our daughter's approval asking how best to support so will be having some contact with her.

Hi Bev53, I apologise for the delay in replying to your helpful and thoughtful reply. I do hope your son is on the path to recovery, I feel so much for DRS1 and your son coping with uni and this condition. It is difficult enough going through it as a parent but far harder for the sufferer. TBH I think the anxiety of it has been taking its toll on me lately so your reminder that I need to think of myself too is timely, thanks for that. Like your son, my daughter has some good friends that know about her diagnosis although not the full nature of her thoughts, as does her boyfriend, and they are supportive. We too have been paying for private therapy and have taken a while to find the right person to help. The practical tips you suggested such as suggesting our daughter have a plan for after ERP sessions, and keeping herself busy around the challenging times in her cycle are particularly helpful. I really am grateful to DRS1 and yourself for taking the time to reply and I will be encouraging my daughter to join the forums. Knowing someone is in the same boat as you is often a lifeline. Best wishes to you and your family.

Thank you so much. I was away for a few days and only just caught up with that really helpful reply. And I don't think it was hard at all, it is great to get the perspective of someone with knowledge and experience. My daughter is coming home at the weekend so I will share this with her as we talk openly about everything, and I will try very hard to stop the reassurance now that you have explained it all so well. I will get the books ad you suggest too. Many thanks again and best wishes to you for your post uni life, I do hope you are getting on well.

My husband and I are struggling. Our 20yr old daughter had a diagnosis of 'mild ocd' 3 years ago but it is worsening despite therapy from a CBT practitioner for alot of that time. She is at uni and the episodes where she contacts us in distress are increasing. She feels great shame because the thoughts lately have centred around sexual attraction to children. She has a loving boyfriend who lives near us but visits her and of course she has no attraction to children it's her ocd doing its worst. Her ocd gets worse around her cycle and she has begun the combined pill (also for acne..which the poor thing also copes with. She has avoided roaccutane at all costs despite it being recommended due to concerns about it's effect on mental health). She began with a new therapist recently who has v good credentials and they have begun ERP in the last three weeks. We wonder if this worsening is due to that, I have read it can get worse before it improves and she has said it's challenging and hard. We wonder if we should advocate medication or let her try the ERP first? We struggle knowing how best to support her. I am available 24/7 to her on the phone/online and it takes its toll on me. She says I shouldn't be reassuring her but I had what I termed "bad thoughts" from a young age which weren't diagnosed or labelled and I got through it by telling my mum/best friend and being repeatedly reassured I was not 'that person' . Eventually for me it subsided. I have told her all this and I reassure her when she's feeling very bad, such as late last night. We are terrified our beautiful, clever girl who really enjoyed her first year in uni is deteriorating mentally and will spoil the rest of her time there. I also worry about the pill worsening her mental state as a previous acne medication seemed to. Any advice on any of the above greatly appreciated..we really want to know how to support her other than encouraging her to focus on other things, get on with her hobbies, paying for her gym membership etc all of which we do. When she is home we get her out and about if she us having a flare up, but helping from a distance is not so easy. Would love any tips or thoughts please and thanks in advance.

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.