Welcome to the Friends, Family and Carers Forum! Introduce yourself here 🙂

[Knuckles70]

Hello everyone, 

I am very new to this.  I found this doing a Web search for help for my Dad.  My Dad has OCD and he is really struggling at the moment.   Which I suppose means that I am struggling to support him. I feel really lost and have no idea what to do. 

[Jynx]

That's amazing @Fyne! And welcome! Hope you find it to be a warm and welcoming community. You can find some tips & tricks here! And another lil tip: if you want other members to be notified that you've responded, you can tag them - use the @ symbol and a drop down will appear, and you can choose their name. If their name isn't there, you can type it out and it should then appear for you to select, then it will show up in blue. 

Hope you find what you're looking for here 😊

[Jynx]

Howdy @Knuckles70 welcome! I'm sorry to hear that things are rough for you and your dad. I'm glad you came across our lil community! We've got a factsheet about OCD (you might have seen already) that could be a helpful read. If you're up for it, you're welcome to share a bit more of your story, so we can get a better idea of ways we might be able to support you! 

[Knuckles70]

Thank you 😊

I am having a read of all the information. 

So a brief history on Dad.

Dad has had ocd checking since as long as I can remember. Mum was always helping him by checking all items that he was ruminating about.  Generally kettle   stove  lights. 

Mum passed away 4 years ago.  Dad has been doing OK up until he had a heavy fall 8 months ago. With my support he has seen his gp  on medication and has had a stay in acute psychiatric ward.  It hasn't helped and the Compulsions have actually gotten worse over the  months and he has added to his list of Compulsion. He is decided to put the family house on the market, which has escalated.  His compulsions and he's in a really bad way at the moment. To the point that he's in Desperate state and. Despair, I'm not sure what to do. I have seen some phone number here on the website?So I will.Give those numbers a ring tomorrow morning.

[Jynx]

Yeah wow @Knuckles70 it has obviously gotten pretty intense. I'm sorry about your mum, too. Been a really tough few years for your family.

Sounds like maybe some ongoing therapeutic support might be good for him? Acute care is helpful in a crisis but treating OCD usually means working with a therapist over time, usually utilising ERP (Exposure and Response Prevention) therapy. 

Yepper we've got a support line you can buzz! They're available Mon-Fri, 10am-8pm, on 1800 187 263. There's also the Guided Service, which could be helpful for the both of you. And we've got some self-care tips and other resources to help you in looking after yourself whilst looking after your dad.

I'm off for tonight, thanks again for sharing and hopefully I'll catch you next time! 💜

[Knuckles70]

Thank you so much. Will tackle this issue.  

[CJR]

Hi there, I would like to meet people that have a family history of mental illness to understand how much of an impact our genes have on our mental health. 

[Dep1967]

Hi all

I’m a 57 year old mother of 32 year old son who is living with depression mental illness. He voluntarily moved out of home to a granny flat behind a friend’s house 2 years ago. Now he is on workers compensation after a work accident and hasn’t paid rent for months. So he is in debt and we, husband and I are his safety net. If he comes back home he will bring back the mentally ill apathy behaviour of not helping with anything, impacting us negatively.

[GardensHeart]

Hi @Dep1967 , 

Welcome to join us here. Thank you for sharing. 

Sounds like you are in a difficult situation... Is there a way for your son to get some accomandation support? And is your son getting some mental health support or any kind of support?

[Dep1967]

His GP or therapist has him on medication this makes him more mellow but he sleeps multiple times a day because of rough sleep at night due to pain in the shoulder area after reconstruction surgery in February this year. He is guided by the iCare case manager and is living on$400 per week from iCare, no money is coming from the former employer . Husband and I have encouraged him to enroll in a tafe course to up skill though he just says no.