[ocd5mom]

Hello, I'm a new member here who is looking for support, information, and above all hope. My 5 year old little girl has sever ocd and we are trying to learn to cope. Our family doesn't understand everything about what we are going through and, unfortunately, many of them think she is just acting out or has bipolar disorder. The truth is that she has gotten to the point that she doesn't want to leave the house and the therapist she has been seeing is worried that she will become agoraphobic without help. I am hoping that medication is not needed, but right now we can only go on what we have learned so far and hope for the best. I hate to see my baby girl going through this but maybe with some good support and help we will be able to make progress. Any advice would be welcomed.

[lynn P.]

Welcome to psychcentral ocd5mom. What are the symptoms of your daughters OCD? Does she go to school and when did this all start. I agree its good to try other things before going on meds. Is there a history of mental illness in your family. My concern is some kids(not all) aren't being diagnosed correctly and its hard when they're so young to classify the illness. Has she has a strep infection? The reason I ask is because of PANDA..which stands for Pediatric autoimmune neuropsychiatric disorder. This is a complication of a strep infection that manifests as psychological symptoms especially OCD. Here's a link and I hope your daughter gets the best help:

http://www.uptodate.com/contents/pan...a-streptococci

[ocd5mom]

She hasn't had a strep infection since she was 2, so that's not it. She has an obsession with washing her hands, because they might have a singular speck of dirt on them, and she has trouble with being able to go out of the house without going through a ritual of checking to be sure her shoes are tied, usually about four time, and that her bear, Lanie, has her coat on her and that she is warm and now that she has her oxygen she has extended the ritual to making sure she has her inhaler, her aero-chamber, her oxygen pack and her other miscellaneous paraphernalia that she needs when we leave. And when we do actually make it out of the house to run errands or go to church or meet someone or anything like that, we have to do everything in the order that she was told we were doing them in or she has a breakdown. For example, if we need to go to the gas station, the pharmacy, and the grocery store; we have to go to the gas statin first, then the pharmacy, and the grocery store, otherwise she looses her composure and "pitches a fit." She is almost to the point that she can't leave home. She has panic attacks when things aren't the way she thinks they should be.

Its been very tough, but I'm hoping it will get better in time and with the right support and management.

[ocd5mom]

She was just diagnosed a few months ago, and its severe as far as hand washing and the like, shes paranoid about leaving the house and going places without checking her bear to be sure shes ready, double checking her meds, and her oxygen, and she is so severely detail oriented that she has to detail every minute thing or she doesn't know how to function in a conversation. Its startling how small details often cross our vision without notice, but she sees them and hears them.