Hi,
My 10 year old daughter is currently stuck in one room of the house and has been housebound and naked for several weeks. Her OCD got really bad over Easter and now she is not at school, not wearing any clothes, won't touch anything, won't touch me etc. Her hair is matted and she looks like she's been living in the woods for months. She is just about eating (but asking for things from packets only - although this is luckily not consistent). Each new day things seem to get worse and now I am regularly spending 3-4 hours at a time with her when she is in crisis (they are lasting longer and longer). I know that it passes eventually but it is so hard when she pleads for my help, 'just do something mummy' but there is nothing I can do. Today she was about to have lunch (her first meal of the day) then went to go and wash her hands. All of a sudden, she couldn't possibly get clean enough, not by showering, bathing or washing at the sink. Her face, teeth, lips, hands and feet needed to be clean but there was no way she could achieve this. This resulted in her getting cold, shivering on the floor for 3 hours and begging me for help. Maybe just being there with her is all I can do but if anyone has any suggestions of anything else I can do to help in those periods of crisis (other than the grounding exercises, distractions etc), please let me know. The distractions help for a while but then she goes back to being distressed so quickly. I should say we had an online assessment with CAMHS yesterday (although they didn't see her). I don't know how long we will have to wait for treatment or even how it could be delivered to her. Thanks for your help.
