Ask the doctors

[Guest guest]

Hello,

Our son, 17, two and a half years with OCD, now in recovery, is

wondering if he can completely eliminate the OCD. He is feeling

discouraged by the thought that OCD is a chronic condition and wants to

totally get rid of it and if he can't he doesn't want to keep trying,

feels what's the point, suspect the OCD may target this idea. He was

very severe and has made massive strides and doing very well really.

I have reminded him that if he does not continue to fight it, it will

take over his life again, so the alternative is not a good one, and he

does know this. Probably more a maturity thing coming to an acceptance

on this, and understandable I think.

Anyway, what I am wondering is to what degree the thoughts will

continue if a person continues to ignore them and not engage or do

anything to feed them. I think knowing percentage of time they might

continue in a day when he reaches a point of recovery might be

something specific that would help to know.

Our son has no rituals only thoughts and says he finds ignoring them

works best, but sometimes he just can't and then struggles to figure

out what to do to counteract them. Again, he has come very far with

all of this, but is working on his own and not sure how to handle some

thoughts. Any ideas on this appreciated.

Lastly, our son was fine in the summer, virtually no thoughts, come

fall and moving into winter just seemed to increase, but he is still

managing them. We have bipolar disorder in our family, I am on the

spectrum myself, and while this is not diagnosed with our son I wonder

about this as a contributing factor, specific to the seasonal change

and lack of light and effect on brain chemistry. This is my experience

personally and watching our son it seems the same for him with the

OCD. Any thoughts on this relationship?

Thank you very much for any ideas.

Warm regards,

Barb Nesrallah