Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder (OCD)
My son's OCD made him think I was contaminated which has led to my wife and my son leaving me. Are there any others in my position or similar?
2 years ago my 15 year old son was diagnosed as suffering from Obsessive Compulsive Disorder after we noticed he was making his hands raw washing after touching door handles in our home . Tragically we discovered that his OCD took the form of a feeling of deep anxiety whenever he touched anything I had touched or was even near me. The child psychiatrist we took our son to see recommended Cognitive Behaviour Therapy but advised our son to concentate on his GCSE's for the present.
Gradually my wife and son spent more and more time apart from me in one room with myself in another because of my son's OCD. This left me feeling that I was a leper in my own house. I tried to talk to my wife about my feelings of lack of affection from both of them, and my isolation and exclusion and how we might cope with the situation - but the more I tried the more she wouldn't listen.
I then gradually sank into deepening depression, about the cruel gulf that OCD had created between my dearly loved son and myself and my lovely wife and I. (Up to 2 years ago I had been a very happy outgoing person.)
Eventually, in a marriage which had already had more than its fair share of mostly undeserved stress, and now with the added daily heavy burden of trying to cope with the tension that OCD had brought into the family home, my wife took the drastic decision to take my son away and file for divorce - which has left me alone, utterly distraught and helpless.
From the day they left 7 months ago, I have been severely traumatised and have been left, pondering the cruel blow OCD had dealt.
My little family of just the three of us was my life and despite attempts to find out how my high-achieving son has fared with his GCSE's and how my wife is getting on in her new teaching job, they refuse to have anything to do with me.
I have no other family here and constantly pray to be reconciled with my wife and my son and for us to be reunited as a family. I have tried hard to find someone who might have the time and be concerned enough, to help to bring the three of us together again - but so far all too no avail.
A new factor that has come to light since my wife and son left me is that I myself have OCPD traits which, as with all OCPD sufferers, I was unaware of until they were pointed out to me. I understand like OCD that OCPD is genetic but one major difference between the two is that those with OCD know they have it whereas OCPD sufferers don't.
I now fear that, as well as trying to deal with my son's OCD, my then undiagnosed OCPD traits were a big factor in my wife's decision to leave.
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