Update on my high school senior daughter

September 18, 2011

I haven't posted in a while, so thought I'd update everyone. My DD17 will be

going away to college next year and I've been very concerned about how she would

make it there with her OCD - germs phobia, bodily substances phobia, social

anxiety. Well, we toured some colleges and found a real small one (2000 total,

including graduate students) that appears to be a good fit for her. They are

very techie-geeky (which describes her to a T), she will be around the same

small group of kids (in her major - Physics) probably for the entire time she is

there. Now, for rooming arrangements we have applied for her to get her own room

in a 2 bedroom suite. She would have to share a bathroom with two other girls.

This is a big anxiety item for her, but not so bad since there would be no guys

(she thinks they leave their hmmm, how do I say this, er, boyish bodily fluids

all over the place). Now, she is quite concerned about the washer/dryer

situation. She would have to use washers and dryers that others (including boys)

use - potentially putting her clothing in a washer where bodily fluids had been

washed. Oh yeah, I forgot to mention she is also dreadfully afraid of any hair

that appears to be pubic. If she sees such a hair in the laundry room she may

just freak out totally. Well, I found her a new therapist a couple of months ago

and I think things are going well. The therapist has her doing " homework " , such

as she is not allowed to change her shirt when she comes home from school. The

therapist has broken down the problems into manageable pieces to be dealt with.

Now, I'm hoping that she'll be so happy to be hanging around with all the

intellectuals at her college (instead of what she calls the 'idiots' at her high

school), that she won't be as concerned and anxious about other things. This

seems to be the case at times, that if she's happy, then she's less OCD.

So, we will see how things pan out in the next year. She will be about an 11

hour drive from our home, in another state. We would not be able to quickly show

up and handle her problems. This is both good and bad.

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