Sue - Erp

[Guest guest]

Sue -

Thanks so much - that's very helpful. I'm so glad to hear from you! Could I ask

more questions? Not sure if whether to continue on list or go off list, as I

need some specific help. We have spent about $2000 out-of-pocket on our

therapist at this point - some of them were home visits that cost more, but

therapist had not done contamination before and he did not even come up with a

good exposure hierarchy to start with. He actually changed the whole hierarchy

right before ERP was supposed to start, which has confused things quite a bit.

His present exposure hierarchy starts at touching guitar and next step is

sitting in living room chair. Son cannot make a leap that big, so we have been

doing very small - just trying to get his clothes dirty bit by bit, but have

stalled out on that. We have basically run out of money for this therapist if he

is not going to show some progress, and we haven't found another one that will

come to our house. I feel son and I could do it if we just had some guidance.

Son just told me yesterday that only " Dad's dirt " is dirty - he could sit in

chair if he knew Dad's dirt wasn't there. So it's not all dirt, just some dirt.

Therapist never even found that out. He focused on son feeling clothes were

dirty, not on where the " bad " dirt was coming from, or holding stuff that had

the " bad dirt " and thus getting used to it. The whole hierarchy is geared to

getting clothes dirty.

Questions - can you help me know what's a reasonable hierarchy? Did your son

have to come up with it? Should we do every day? How long? What if he doesn't

want to move on? Did you give incentives? Did you use any medication? Did you

call it OCD or come up with some other name (bully, monster, etc)? What did your

son think was dirty (ie dog wasn't dirty?)?

thanks so much,

Rhonda

Re: - ERP

I would have to sit with my son(14) for twenty minutes or longer. He had

contamination type ocd. For example, he would have to hold the tv remote until

his anxiety came down to half of where he started. But my son would try and wait

me out and then want to wash his hands even after sitting a long time holding

it. Then I realized that he would have to touch something else after touching a

contaminated item, for example the dog.

The dtr told me if he sat for a long time holding the item, and then just

washed hands anyway, that was making the ocd stronger. To help with the waiting

it out, we would sit and watch tv, while doing erp. It did take alot of time

waiting it out (for sons anxiety to come down), but it worked. Sometimes my son

would get tired of waiting, and then he would just go touch things, so that

actually helped him progress faster.

After about 3 months therapy, ds was able to overcome it. He has had no signs

of ocd for over 6 mths now. Key for us was a great therapist, experienced in

treating kids with ocd. It was not an easy road, many times I would be in tears

after trying the erp, because I didn't think it was going to work.

Sue

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> > -

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> > I'm looking at how you did ERP with your son. It sounds like it was pretty

quick -- just let him experience that he can do the thing he thought he

couldn't. Our therapist has us doing a long, drawn out sequence of stuff, where

my ds is supposed to sit and think about the dirt he got on himself for 20

minutes or so, waiting for the anxiety to come down. This is driving ds crazy -

his mind isn't cut out to sit and think about dirt for 20 minutes, whether it's

on him or on the moon. I don't see this in Audrey Wagner's book either - she has

the child having fun & doing other stuff while experiencing the feared

behavior.Sure, maybe talk about it some but not drive the child crazy. I mean,

you didn't keep saying, " Look son you turned the light switch off once - now

think about it til your anxiety comes down! "

> >

> > Your thoughts? Son is not wanting to do the ERPs because of this. I think

he would be okay getting the dirt on and moving on.

> >

> > Rhonda

> >

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