Re: Re: Question about ERP/CBT not working

[Guest guest]

Avoidance is the biggest way OCD affects me.  It is sort of insidious because

at first it seems like no big deal to avoid certain, specific things, but for me

and my daughter, it snowballs out of control to where more and more seems like

it should be avoided.  I have found that the things that I give in about

avoiding for my daughter  because much bigger fears for her, but if I make her

do or go where she has fears, she finds that the anticipation is much worse than

the actual exposure.

Re: Question about ERP/CBT not working

you made some very good points. I know must have some ability to " talk

back " to her OCD, because otherwise she wouldn't be able to ignore it, right? I

mean, if she were being completely overwhelmed by the thoughts, she'd be totally

nonfunctional, so at some level, she's controlling it in her own way, I guess.

She saw her therapist again and they worked on another list. Since it's really

only the shoes bothering her, she ranked them from lowest to highest on her

anxiety scale. Hers were the lowest, then mine, then Dad/Grandpa's, then her

siblings at the top.

I made her a compromise that if she would do SOME kind of exposure (even

mentally), I would back off on

the nagging. Like you said, her exposure might be internal. She usually tells

me, too, like " Mom, I worked on putting my hands down today " . Of course,

though, she hasn't picked up the workbook on her own. Honestly, I think it's a

little too advanced for her; her reading comprehension is lacking; she

understands better when either I read it out loud or she does.

As far as rituals, you know, she really doesn't have anything specific; she's

not a counter, or checker, or even a washer. The closest she comes is when

she's close to some shoes, she'll go wash her hands, BUT only once. I suppose,

though, that's a ritual in itself, just feeling like she has to wash after being

near shoes. The only other " ritual " she appears to have is simply avoidance,

like being on the computer, reading in her room, sitting away from people

wearing shoes in a house (doesn't seem to be as big an issue in public). But

since some of this is (I think) normal teenage stuff, too, it's really hard to

know what to work on and what to leave alone!

Debbie

Debbie Cavender

http://twochinadolls.blogspot.com

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