ATL

He's 12 years old, I'm his dad. He moved from his mum's house when he ended up not eating or sleeping and unable to touch anything or anyone in the house. He hasn't been to school since May. After he left his mum's it became clear he has OCD, the contamination followed him and spread to my parents' house, where I was living when he came. He can't touch anything from that house, or my parents themselves. We've since rented a flat and the contamination has spread to here. He can't touch an ever increasing number of items in the house, often including me, and sits in his room watching YouTube videos all day. He can't go out, because he can't touch the door and various things in town. He can't go in the kitchen, or to the living room, becuase I've contaminated everything there. I can't go in his room in case I contaminate things there as well. He can't go back to his mum's because that's contaminated. In the evening he has a very long shower, then he can touch a very few things which are 'bed clean' and cry himself to sleep. I've read up on OCD, I know what he and I should be doing (i.e. not giving in to the contamination), but getting a 12 year old to challenge himself in even the smallest ways just isn't possible, as he doesn't want to do it. I'm in touch with CAMHS, they are so far completely useless. I can't work, my son can't go to school, we just sit here being miserable and getting worse, if this goes on long enough we'll both be homeless. Is there any help available anywhere? Thanks

Hi, my son is also 12. 3 or 4 years back he had lots of issues with not eating, luckily after around a year he did start eating again, it's only over the past 6 months that its become clear he has ocd, which has made me think the not eating must have been ocd related as well. Anyway, the point of my post is that it might be an idea to get in touch with each other to explore whether our sons may want to be in contact, if they're going through similar. From what I've read, ocd doesn't spread through support groups so they wouldn't make each other worse! I'm new to this forum, I assume there's a pm facility, if you might be interested just let me know. I hope your son is ok. I'm currently reading a book I would recommend called Brain Lock, if you haven't already come across it