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Suggest Treatment For Obsessive Compulsive Disorder

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Posted on Mon, 6 Apr 2015
Question: My 33 year old son has not been able to hold a job and is still living at home. He obsesses about certain things, such as the number of traffic deaths in the United States and he wants to change the speed limit to 35. He can talk for hours and hours of how people who drive in bad weather can 'murder' people by traveling under bad conditions. This obsession has just started in the past couple of months. Now he does 'research' on this and will continually talk about the stats of traffic fatalities. He won't drive in bad weather. We live in the north east so we have bad weather! He thinks all Human Resource Managers should take this into consideration that he will not go to work if the weather is bad. He will not work any where that he has to be at work prior to him 'wanting to get up'. What's going on with my son? He's so intelligent and was such a happy guy. Now he's miserable and everything is someone else's fault.
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Answered by Dr. Shubham Mehta (54 minutes later)
Brief Answer:
probable OCD.

Detailed Answer:
Hello
Welcome to HCM.
I can understand your concerns for your son.

The description strongly suggests that your son is probably suffering from obsessive compulsive disorder.

I think he needs drug treatment at the urgent. Anti-obsessional drugs like fluoxetine or sertraline (prescription drugs) work very well in such cases.

Another important thing which will decide the treatment would be level of insight he has for his obsessive symptoms.

Since he blames everyone and find out other's faults, a possibility of psychotic spectrum disorder must be kept in mind.

If he does not accepts his symptoms to be problematic and believes his thoughts to be rational, a differential diagnosis of psychosis should be considered.

A psychiatric evaluation is must for him at this point of time. Kindly discuss this with your doctor.

Hope this helps.
Feel free to ask further.

Thanks.
Note: For further guidance on mental health, Click here.

Above answer was peer-reviewed by : Dr. Raju A.T
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Answered by
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Dr. Shubham Mehta

Psychiatrist

Practicing since :2008

Answered : 2144 Questions

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Suggest Treatment For Obsessive Compulsive Disorder

Brief Answer: probable OCD. Detailed Answer: Hello Welcome to HCM. I can understand your concerns for your son. The description strongly suggests that your son is probably suffering from obsessive compulsive disorder. I think he needs drug treatment at the urgent. Anti-obsessional drugs like fluoxetine or sertraline (prescription drugs) work very well in such cases. Another important thing which will decide the treatment would be level of insight he has for his obsessive symptoms. Since he blames everyone and find out other's faults, a possibility of psychotic spectrum disorder must be kept in mind. If he does not accepts his symptoms to be problematic and believes his thoughts to be rational, a differential diagnosis of psychosis should be considered. A psychiatric evaluation is must for him at this point of time. Kindly discuss this with your doctor. Hope this helps. Feel free to ask further. Thanks.