More OCD with confirmed OCD diagnosis?

[Nicole F]

Hi,

My daughter (10) just received her formal OCD diagnosis after a psych eval this week. We self-diagnosed her two weeks ago through watching your videos, but since then, she’s had a major increase in OCD behaviors. What used to be just wiping, word avoidance and reassurance has increased in the last few days to walking backward, jumping on/over certain things to get around the house, over-pouring milk, rewinding videos over and over for no explained reason, more work avoidance, etc. Can a diagnosis increase symptoms? Do you have any suggestions on how to handle it? We’ve watched your videos together on crushing OCD which I refer to with her. I find I’m pleading with her to not feed her OCD, but she tells me she can’t stop and wants to be miserable. It seems like we’re on a tipping point, and I want to nip these new things before they get locked in. Thoughts? Thank you!

[Natasha]

Hi Nicole,
Sorry to hear about her struggles. Yes, it is not uncommon for OCD symptoms to increase when there is a focus on it. I equate it to an ant hill that is stepped on. It was always there, but now they are scrambling and it seems like a bigger issue.

Did you take the parent or kid OCD course? No one wants to be miserable, but I wonder if she is saying that because it seems too hard to work on at this point?

Have you considered a medication assessment due to the severity of the OCD at this point?

[Nicole F]

Hi, Natasha. Thank you. Yes, we’ve had my daughter on 20mg of citalopram for over a year now for anxiety. We’ve played with adding guanfacine and oxycarbazipine (sp?) but neither seemed to do anything and the citalopram doesn’t seem to be doing much at this point. I saw a post that someone had been successful with sertraline so I ran that past her prescribing doc this morning. She said it should metabolize well for my daughter based on her DNA test so I think we may try that.

We haven’t taken the course yet, but have watched several videos. I want to start the course on difficult behaviours. What is the course you recommend for kids? We’ve been seeing a counselor and just gave him the diagnosis, but he has no specialty in OCD, and I’m just not sure we’re going to get the traction with him I’m hoping for. Thank you!

[Natasha]

Hi Nicole,
Yes, it sounds like a good idea to discuss other medication options if you haven’t seen any improvement. Here is the International OCD Foundation’s pediatric medication recommendations and dosages. Often the dosage needs to be at a much higher level for OCD: https://kids.iocdf.org/professionals/mh/meds-for-pediatric-ocd/

I would recommend taking the How to Teach Kids to Crush OCD course before you take the difficult behavior course. You need the foundational understanding of OCD before you take the other courses. Also that course will give you a step-by-step approach of how to understand OCD and how to help her. You don’t want to jump into everything without a full understanding. You get free access to that course as a member. You can learn more here: https://atparentingcommunity.com/online-classes/

Recently I created Crushing OCD Course for Kids and Teens in my online school (which is separate from this membership and is not included). That course gives kids support directly. 12 other kids help me teach that course. You can learn more here: https://atparentingsurvivalschool.com/p/ocd-class-for-kids

That course might be worth looking into after you take the parent course.

I would definitely get an OCD therapist if possible. OCD requires a very specific therapeutic approach that requires extra training that most general therapists do not have. You can look for one at http://www.IOCDF.org/find-help or NOCD at http://www.treatmyocd.com to start. We also have a directory of child/teen providers here: https://atparentingcommunity.com/courses/recommended-providers/

[Nicole F]

Thank you so much. I’ll definitely start on the How to Teach Kids course. In the meantime, I reached out to NOCD and already have an appointment scheduled with a therapist for Aug 1. Amazing! Thank you so much for that resource too. Have a mentioned how much I appreciate you and AT Parenting Community in that last 24 hours? 🙂 Not sure where we’d be without you. Thank you!

Nicole

[Natasha]

Oh great! So glad you were able to get an appointment so fast! I’m happy to be a source of support for you Nicole.

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