<p>Hi All,</p>
<p>My son has OCD (obsessive compulsive disorder).</p>
<p>He is very happy Oberlin has accepted him for class of 2015, and is planning on working hard to beat back his OCD this summer, to prepare for college. (He has been in treatment for the past year, and shown a lot of improvement).</p>
<p>Nonetheless, he is also considering a gap year, to work on his OCD further, so when he gets to Oberlin, he can be there 100%.</p>
<p>I am wondering if there are parents out there whose kids have similar conditions, and how supportive the Oberlin administration, faculty & counseling services are with such students.</p>
<p>My son is high functioning (he would not have got into Oberlin otherwise)--good student, varsity tennis player, jazz musician and a great writer. He is a wonderful person, with a lot to offer the community.</p>
<p>I would welcome your thoughts about entering Oberlin with a condition like this, and what support services would be available to him, to help make freshman year & beyond a winner!</p>
<p>Thank you!</p>
<p>I know you asked for parent responses, but since you didn’t receive any I thought I’d jump in…
The Oberlin administration will do everything it can to support your son and to make sure that he is able to succeed academically and socially at Oberlin. If he disclosed his OCD in his application, some offices on campus will already be alerted to his situation, but you should definitely make sure that he is aware of, and comfortable approaching, any relevant resources if the need arises. Some resources you’ll want to be aware of include:</p>
<p>Office of Disability Services (you should definitely contact this office if you haven’t already)
Dean of Students/Class Dean
Academic advisor
Resident Assistant
Counseling Center</p>
<p>One of the best things you can do to help you son succeed throughout his four years is to encourage him to seek out a relevant resource as soon as he begins to experience a problem. We have many resources available to help your son, and generally students who come in with any sort of disability or medical condition are able to do quite well, as long as they are willing and proactive about asking for help when necessary.</p>
<p>domi555, good luck to your son! I think it’s wonderful that Elizabeth responded to you.</p>
<p>I just want to second what she has told you. Our son was diagnosed with a severe mental illness this past year, as a college freshman at a different university. I ended up calling his academic advisor last week (something I NEVER thought I would do since I’m trying not to be a helicopter mom!). She made it clear that it’s her job to help our son succeed, and encouraged him to come see her whenever he has an issue or problem. She will then contact the professor if she needs to.</p>
<p>Make sure your son gets a letter of accommodation (the office of Disability Services will help with that) so that his profs understand his situation.</p>
<p>Now we have to work on getting our son to speak up sooner. That’s the hard part! One of his meds made him very sleepy in the spring, but he didn’t say anything and missed quite a few classes. Somehow he pulled through, though, and got 3 B+s, and one A, in biomedical engineering! He was allowed to take a makeup test in psychology - part of the test was on his illness, coincidentally.</p>
<p>domi, I will be thinking of your son. If you ever want to PM me, feel free. My son sounds a lot like yours - he has a lot to offer, but he needs to overcome some daunting obstacles to succeed.</p>
<p>Thank you both so much for your warm advice and encouragement. I will share it with my son, who has been working hard on himself in preparation for Oberlin, but is very reluctant to request “accommodation”. It sounds like Oberlin has a lot of great resources, and I’ll start making some calls…</p>
<p>He is extremely pro-active about his treatment and is really drilling down personally–exploring meditation, staying very active with his CBT and joining OCD support groups, so that is all good.</p>
<p>He has huge expectations of himself and the opportunities at Oberlin and part of the challenge is to scale those down slightly so that he doesn’t get overly anxious–I am sure freshman year will be an adjustment and a time when the resources you have recommended will make a big difference.</p>
<p>My son has been hesitant about the accommodations, also. We told him just to get everything in place in case he needed help. Sure enough, he ended up in the hospital just before classes ended in the spring. He was allowed to make up the test because of the letter! Maybe you could tell your son the accomodations letter is insurance. It just gives him a fighting chance in case he takes a turn for the worse. Another thing to keep in mind: the accommodations letter allowed my son to drop a class much later than would normally be allowed. He is also permitted to drop below the minimum number of hours of classes if he needs to, and still keep his financial aid. I would recommend that you talk to the Disabilities Office. The people at my son’s school were SO helpful, and I bet it’s the same at Oberlin.</p>
<p>My son has high expectations of himself, too. His doctor is working with him to adjust those, but I haven’t noticed much of a change!</p>
<p>I am wondering if you have any advice for another parent of a boy with OCD. He is a rising senior and we only realized that he struggled with this when he was approaching high school – the stress of anticipating high school sent him deep into rituals and we finally realized something was very wrong. He has an IEP but does not use it; as another parent posted, it is an insurance policy in case he needs help, but so far, he refuses to ask for it. </p>
<p>He is a delightful, bright kid, with so much to offer; he is also woefully disorganized and still distracted by mild compulsions/rituals. He has dealt with the worst of his stuff, but still allows the minor stuff in his life. My brain doesn’t function like his, so I don’t understand what he deals with – but as a rising senior and, a year from now, a college freshamn – I hope that he finds a way to focus more specifically on CBT to really clean out the low level distractions. </p>
<p>Any advice on how to encourage a kid – who seems untroubled to the rest of the world but still struggles internally – to systematically attack his issues? </p>
<p>Best wishes to your son, and congratulations to him on Oberlin – we haven’t visited but it is on our list. And good luck with preparations for the fall!</p>