MicheleB Posted January 23, 2009 Share Posted January 23, 2009 Has anyone treated OCD in your child naturally? My 10yo ds has pretty bad OCD in the form of scrupolosity and recently, thoughts of harming himself or others. My dh does not want him to take an anti-depressant and wants me to look into natural remedies. However, I am concerned about giving him something "natural" and not really knowing what, how much, and if they are OK for ds to take. For example, ds had asthma until he was about 4. Now he hasn't suffered from it in the last years, but how do I know a natural remedy wouldn't bring it on again? Just questions like that. I'm willing to try a natural remedy but would like some places to start that are proven and safe. Have you taken your child to see their regular doctor before starting natural remedies? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
juls Posted January 23, 2009 Share Posted January 23, 2009 a website called latitudes. The folks on the forum boards are very helpful. http://www.latitudes.org/forums/index.php The OCD board isn't nearly as active as the Tourette's board, but many people with Tourettes also have OCD and treat it with naturally. I would start at the Tourette's board. We have had success with supplements, but it does take some playing around. Also a book to recommend: What to Do When Your Brain Gets Stuck by Dawn Huebner. This book is written for kids ages 6-12. Our library had it but my son thinks its worth buying for him to refer to. Juls Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Misty Posted January 23, 2009 Share Posted January 23, 2009 My 5yo Aspie daughter has severe OCD and she is currently in counseling once a week for it. I have also taken her off dairy and she takes a good vitamin and probiotics. Have you looked at 5HTP? It's a natural supplement that many people swear by. It could help your son. I am tempted to start my daughter on it, but I think she is still a little too young, so I'm still debating. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cillakat Posted January 23, 2009 Share Posted January 23, 2009 Has anyone treated OCD in your child naturally? My 10yo ds has pretty bad OCD in the form of scrupolosity and recently, thoughts of harming himself or others. The book _Depression Free Naturally_ saved my life. It covers depression, ocd, anxiety, bipolar, schizophrenia etc etc.... I definitely have strong OCD tendencies (and at sometimes have fit all of the dianostic criteria). It's so worth getting. There's too much to describe here, but it thoroughly covers the use of orthomolecular medicine to treat 'mental' illness. Orthomolecular medicine means nothing more than 'using substances that naturally occur in the body - vitamins, minerals, amino acids - to treat illness. The RDA of nutrients is low enough to keep most of us in reasonably poor health most of the time.....most of us will need much much more than the typical RDA to mantain or regain optimal mental or physical health. I take ~4000 IU vitamin D daily ~3g fish oil (yielding 1.2g epa/600 mg dha)....at one time i was taking 16g fish oil daily!! ~a variety of amino acids as needed (tryptophan, taurine....glycine, gaba as needed) 250 mg pantothenic acid (b5) at lunch ~lots of b6....both the regular pyroxidine form and 50 or so mg of the p5p form ~400-1000 mg magnesium depending on mood and dietary magnesium ~500-1000 mg calcium as needed depending on dietary calcium ~30 mg zinc per day (and much much more if fighting illness) ~250mg niacinamide as needed for irritability ~extra C.....there's a more too The list is long:) Have to go do carpool right now but ime ocd, anxiety, depression and bipolar are highly treatable using orthomolecular medicine. Tourette's also generally shows significant improvement with orthomolecular treatment. ADHD? eh...about 50% improvement. Not as much as with meds. :) Katherine Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tree House Academy Posted January 23, 2009 Share Posted January 23, 2009 I have OCD. I am not a child, but I can not imagine treating it without therapy AND medication. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cillakat Posted January 24, 2009 Share Posted January 24, 2009 Has anyone treated OCD in your child naturally? My 10yo ds has pretty bad OCD in the form of scrupolosity and recently, thoughts of harming himself or others. My dh does not want him to take an anti-depressant and wants me to look into natural remedies. However, I am concerned about giving him something "natural" and not really knowing what, how much, and if they are OK for ds to take. Oh! and fwiw, cognitive behavioral therapy is one of the most effective treatments for OCD. Also, the regular doc won't know anything about natural remedies and ime are generally overly fearful of them. Personally, I wouldn't use herbal meds in this case....the herbs really are *medicines* albeit natural ones. They, like drug treatment, can absolutely have side effects. Using orthomolecular medicine and/or CBT would be exceptionally safe. On the asthma front.....keep in mind that it will likely pop up again. It's very usual to grow out of it permanently. It's now generally accepted that it tends to go underground for a few or many years then pop up later. :) K Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cillakat Posted January 24, 2009 Share Posted January 24, 2009 My 5yo Aspie daughter has severe OCD and she is currently in counseling once a week for it. I have also taken her off dairy and she takes a good vitamin and probiotics. Have you looked at 5HTP? It's a natural supplement that many people swear by. It could help your son. I am tempted to start my daughter on it, but I think she is still a little too young, so I'm still debating. Your daughter is definitely not too young, but I would encourage you to avoid 5-HTP and instead use L-tryptophan. Too many report side effects with 5-htp....tryptophan is wonderful. It's available at iherb.com Yes, 2 people (in the 1980's) died from contaminated tryptophan, which led to it being pulled from the market in the US.....but that was a processing/contamination issue and NOT a tryptophan issue. Consider the risk this way... there have been deaths from bacteria contaminated meat, spinach and fruit......we still eat these things.... Anyway, I take tryptophan as needed and both of my kids have taken it at one time or another. Fwiw, it tastes AWFUL so the pill is the way to go. Other inhibitory amino acids like taurine, glycine, GABA can also be helpful. Inositol powder can also be very helpful. Love that stuff.....and it's sweet and easy to take. Place blob directly on tongue and swallow. Easy breezy. inositol info: https://healthlibrary.epnet.com/GetContent.aspx?token=e0498803-7f62-4563-8d47-5fe33da65dd4&chunkiid=21766 :) Katherine Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lovedtodeath Posted February 26, 2009 Share Posted February 26, 2009 (edited) Other inhibitory amino acids like taurine, glycine, GABA can also be helpful. Inositol powder can also be very helpful. Love that stuff.....and it's sweet and easy to take. Place blob directly on tongue and swallow. Easy breezy. We are starting on Gabacalm as soon as it gets here. I just placed the order. If you put Gaba and OCD, ADHD, asthma etc. into a search engine, studies will pop up. It treats everything that I have wrong with me (autoimmune inflammation, depression, ADD, etc.), and I have been on it before for migraines and chronic pain, so I really encourage you to use all the search terms you can think of and get the information that you need. My rule of thumb is that herbs can be dangerous and large doses of anything without testing can be dangerous, but vitamins, minerals, amino acids, hormones, are all things that "normal" people might have in larger quantities, and getting them up to a "normal" level is not going to do harm. You can look into Electrodermal testing. It can tell you what a specific person needs of any supplements. Edited February 26, 2009 by Lovedtodeath Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cillakat Posted February 27, 2009 Share Posted February 27, 2009 (edited) <<If you put Gaba and OCD, ADHD, asthma etc. into a search engine, studies will pop up. It treats everything that I have wrong with me (autoimmune inflammation, depression, ADD, etc.),>> All things linked with D deficiency as well:) Since only approx 5% of the population has optimal levels of D, chances are that D deficiency is playing a major role..... :) Katherine Edited February 27, 2009 by cillakat Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Laurie4b Posted February 27, 2009 Share Posted February 27, 2009 Many people can get enough help with cognitive behavioral therapy to avoid the use of medication. Cognitive behavioral therapy is basically training in how to relax and learn to ignore/override the compulsions. It is not a "dig around in your psyche" kind of therapy. There is a very, very strong research base for it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Join the conversation
You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.