Re: Ask Dr. Chansky - REPLY TO KAREN

February 13, 2012

I am so sorry to hear what you are going through. This is extremely challenging,

but since you have a therapist involved already, use that as a place for

contracting. It's about basic ground rules right now. How many times a week he

showers, and most importantly what he can and can't do vis a vis the bathroom.

It is not OK for his OCD to put others at risk. Having paper towels with feces

on them, is not acceptable. Talk with your son and his therapist about

solutions-- if he can't touch the toilet paper, what can he do? Accommodations.

Use something to touch the toilet paper. Obviously this is a step backward with

OCD, but a step forward in terms of functionality until he can work on direct

exposures to what he is avoiding and afraid to touch. But he has to be a good

citizen in your household, and not tending to his toileting needs is not being a

good citizen.

I hope this can point you in a direction until he gets more help.

All best,

Tamar Chansky

>

> Hi Dr. Chansky,

>

> I am writing to ask for your suggestions on dealing with bathroom avoidance

issues with my son. He is almost 16 years old, has Tourette's, OCD/anxiety. All

of these conditions went undiagnosed until about a year and half ago because

prior to that time, he only had a mild eye-blinking tic and his OCD was not

really apparent. When he hit puberty, all hell broke loose and his

tics/Tourette's went into orbit. Since that time he's had many different motor

and vocal tics, some which have been pretty debilitating.

>

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