Parents with son suffering with OCD..Find Support Here...

Hello from Canada...
Just wanted to offer some support for any parents struggling with their child/teen/adult son or daughter or any family member or friend suffering with OCD.
Speaking from experience, it isn't easy to watch someone live in such fear and anguish as this can sometimes cause. It feels so helpless to stand by and not be able to 'take it all away' and it can be the toughest thing to ever go through having a child/teen not be able to stand close to you, touch you or have you 'contaminate' them vice versa..
our son hasn't sat near us or in the living room for over 6 yrs now.. On special occasion and when on meds last year, he did sit in the living room chair and eat pizza with us and watch some shows with his dad.
Those moments are so rare and SO very precious.
To lose those moments of closeness with him..when he was younger and how cuddly he used to be.. really tore my heart out and it has been really tough to try to heal that broken heart over a span of six years.
Everything seemed to spiral out of control and I felt I had nowhere to turn and just didn't know what to do for him or how to help and this made me feel like a complete failure as a parent. He stopped coming near us. Eventually stopped coming upstairs for dinner. Wrapped himself in a sheet and cocooned himself on several occasions to even sit in the living room. School was ok for awhile until that too became unbearable for him. Everything we tried to do in order to help seemed to push him even further away from us and make him angry and he would cry for hours if my husband even accidentally brushed against him or stepped too close to him or his room.. he lost a ton of weight..looked pale and tired and it was like we were watching him slowly wither away and helpless to do anything.. but I couldn't let it go on any further and I called the distress center.. did research online to find help.. He refused to go near us or travel with us in our vehicle so in the beginning, it was just myself and husband that went to family support/counselling until years later he came with us to a big psych evaluation.
Those years were some of the worst in my life and our family felt so broken and in constant crisis.
My husband and I were at each other constantly and our older son would sometimes cry and we were just so consumed with ocd that we were barely able to function.
Friends had a hard time understanding and family could offer love and support but until you live through such a crisis, it's really hard to relate and 'truly understand' what is going on.
Many years later.. our son is now 18 and still has relapses. He has been on several medication, been to doctor when he became suicidal (not med related) and has done some things that scared the daylights out of me and after years of self-care and self-help, I have learned how to help and love and support without it destroying me. It still hurts. It's still very challenging.
But today, I can honestly say my husband and I survived because of our tenacity and courage and because I reached out for help..
I hope anyone who knows someone suffering from OCD : a child/loved one /family member/parent.. can read this and believe there is HOPE and there is support out there .. please write any experiences you may have had yourself in the past or present and together we can lean on each other because it does feel powerless/helpless at times to watch someone endure a mental illness etc and that's why I wanted to write this post...
Take good Care and Hope to hear from you!