Will the OCD symptoms get worse with age?

[Guest guest]

Hi everyone,

My son, with diagnosed Tourette's and OCD, has relatively mild symptoms now. He

has a few

tics and he is a hoarder--refusing to throw away any of his own trash, and he

makes frequent

trips to the bathroom, chews on his shirt, and sometimes has bad thoughts. His

symptoms

come and go, and sometimes can be very bad for about a week then disappear for

several

weeks. After reading many of your posts, I feel lucky to have it so easy in

comparison and my

heart goes out to all of you.

My question is this: will his symptoms always be the same as they are now, or

will they get

much worse with age? Does anyone have an older child who was diagnosed fairly

young and

can relate how the ocd progressed with age? I just started to worry about this

recently--if he

is having all these issues now, and they get worse with age, will he even be

able to function

as an adult? I know from my reading that his Tourette's symptoms will probably

get worse as

and peak around age 12, but what about the ocd symptoms? Any insight would be

great.