Sweetcheeks63

Kind words. Thankyou

Thankyou so much for response. The CBT he had before was a few years ago and before we realised he may be developing OCD. He now has a really good therapist who is primarily getting to know him well and assessing whether he indeed has co morbid OCD and/or anxiety…on top of his autism. Thankyou for the book recommendation. Knowledge is so important.

Autism and OCD? My son 22years) was diagnosed with autism at the age of three and has always had ‘obsessions’ throughout his life which bring him pleasure. However over the past couple of years, and the last year in particular, these obsessions have changed significantly. He is now suffering from recurring intrusive thoughts which continue throughout the day and night, intruding on his ability to enjoy life, focus on his studies and severely affecting his sleep. We have tried yoga, Mindfulness and CBT with no success. The CBT worked well until his challenges became too complex, resulting in the sessions causing much more harm than good. Initial interviews seem to be confirming that Keir may well be presenting with comorbid OCD and or an anxiety disorder and assessment is underway. While I am educated and knowledgable about how My son’s autism affects him, I am aware that treating OCD can be challenging on it’s own, but treating OCD when it co-exists alongside autism can be even more difficult and the strategies we use for autism may be doing more harm than good. I am also well aware that the longer OCD is left untreated, the harder it is to treat. I have not gone through the GP/Psychological Services route as aware of the enormous pressure the service has been under and waiting lists are long. I am also acutely aware that if treatment is not ASD specific it can cause enormous harm. We have started with a private therapy company and assessment who are in a position to conduct assessment and therapy sessions as we speak and we feel it is of the utmost urgency that we do everything we can to help and support my son to have an improved mental wellbeing before the start of his Year 3 at university His obsessions are intrusive sexual thoughts and his compulsion is to ‘check in ‘ with me that he is ok. This can last about 10-15 hours a day and usually peaks through the night, which involves me sitting with him and talking him down Just wondering if anyone has experience of this. Obviously my concern is the co morbidity with autism, which from what I have read can make it harder to treat. Thankyou for reading

Thankyou for your kind words

Autism and OCD