Therapy and Psychiatrist roles

October 9, 2008

Hi,

I'm new to the group. I wrote last week about my 13 year old son that

has been recently diagnosed with OCD.

Yesterday we went to our 3rd psychiatrist apt. and 2nd therapy session

and I'm totally confused about the roles each one plays and I think

his doctors are as well. We had the psychiatrist apt. at 4:30 and the

Therapy is from 5-6.

My son asked a question of me while driving to the apts. the first

time. He said he would be willing to try to stop counting IF the

doctor thought it would help and he would stop counting all together.

Basically he counts all the time he says and he hasn't not tried to

stop himself because if he does it makes him very uncomfortable,

anixous and break out into a sweat possibly. So I said let's ask the

doctor about it when get there.

We asked the psychiatrist about it and he said it was a good question

for the therapist. I was surprised and thought he was the therapist

too. I didn't know.

He said, no and he is basically there to manage the medicines and

diagnose I guess.

So then we got to therapy and the lady there just takes our info. for

the first apt. We talk about his symptoms, etc. She recommends us

buying the OCD workbook.

We buy the book and I read through it during the following week. We

start to work on it.

So yesterday was our 2nd apt. Basically she asked us what the doctor

had said in our apt. before hers. She asked us what he said when we

told him he's still counting, etc. She said that sometimes they just

stare at you and you have to demand answers and we should ask him

questions like, does he expect the OCD will go away with the medicine

and how long it will take, etc. She basically just asked us how things

were going. I told her we got the book. I asked her if we were doing

Cognitive Behavioral Therapy and she said kinda. I'm kicking myself

today for not asking her to explain or something. I told her about the

idea in the book about his counting and reducing the number he counts

to and so on. She said if the book has good ideas I want to use then

we should try it. She asked me to hand her the book to look at. (The

book she told me to buy). I wish I could remember word for word what

she said but I really got the feeling that she didn't know anymore

about OCD than I do from reading and researching on the web. I also

got the feeling that she sees her role as we are doing what we want to

and research ourselves and she just talks to us about it.

She did recommend a coping statement. She wants him to say a sentence

to himself with he feels like counting and then take a deep breath and

say done.

She said he should reward himself afterwards if he's able to not count

with a candy bar or something.

I don't know if we should stick it out with her or try things on our

own or is this the normal roles of each person. I'm so new to all of

this and have never seen a psychiatrist or know anyone who has so I'm

not sure of the roles each one plays.

Thanks for any help.

Tracey

October 9, 2008

Usually you see a psychiatrist to prescribe medication. Â With children, this

should be done if the child is still struggling after attempts at cognitive

behavior therapy with a psychologist experienced in treating OCD. Â Then the

child is put on medication to make the behavior therapy work easier. Â It does

sound like your therapist is not knowledgeable about OCD. Â Where are you

located? Â Perhaps someone here can recommend a good OCD therapist.