Hello - I am new here. My daghter was just diagnosed with OCD in January - her previous diagnosis was generalized anxiety but in about 7 years of work and therapy and a 504 plan - nothing was getting better. So I took her for a full neuropsych eval. I just found and completed a class on the SPACE program, I am still working through the book, and am beginning the process of removing accomodations one by one. (I'm on the first one)
My daughter is 17. She is a straight A student - but she turns in more than 75% her assignments late (thank you for that accomodation school system and 504 plan, seemed like a good idea at the time - it would go away as she matured - um well I'm here - so you can all see how that has turned out, instead of getting less and less, the number of late assignments is more and more and now I don't even know what to do)
She is going to be taking a 15 hour/week intensive OCD therapy after graduation (because intense OCD therapy in the last 2 months of her senior year of highschool is a bad idea) and I am implementing the SPACE program. She has been accepted to two colleges with one more we're still waiting on - and is refusing to even consider a gap year or a school where she can live at home.
I am looking for advice. Am I crazy trying to get through this and expecting there is anyway she can stand on her own in a different city in August ??
Are there things I can do to help set her up for success - ways to apply SPACE - accomodations to get in place for her at her college of choice (she has to choose in the next month but hasn't yet so there is time to set stuff up before she even gets there) - Life skills I may have forgot to teach her?
I am open to any ideas and feedback.
I have been trying to help this kid since the 5th grade - nothing has worked - this probably leaves me more than a little skeptical that CBT, exposure therapy and SPACE can really get her from where she is today to able to navigate that freshman year in 6 months, when nothing has worked for 7 years.
I am one terrified mom
Jen
Also recognise that you working on the accommodations as she goes through her OCD treatment will be most likely to bring success. If you are not accommodating she will have to use her tools from treatment.
Hi there Jen, this is such a tender time/age and I get why you feel apprehensive, but it sounds like she is going to be OK. (BTW, for us the school accommodations were very much needed and contributed to our kids’ success, academic and psychological, and are very different than parental accommodations)
Our (now 30 year old) son with OCD did better in college than expected - he sort of rallied - the limits there were clear, he needed to just cope, etc.
He did end up taking a semester off during his second year, which was also fine. Wanted to also recommend getting your daughter the book Everything is an Emergency if you haven’t already. It’s a great little graphic memoir by a cartoonist with OCD and talks a lot about his first year in college.