Catch up and OCD

The week did improve, thank heavens.
 
Wednesday’s group was still a bit hyper from Christmas, but they’re not pure horribleness like Monday’s. Thursday’s and Friday’s groups were pretty good (comparatively).   At least I know that the lesson worked despite the first time being with group-horrible.
 
The only fly in the ointment was that one of the big bosses came down and sat in my lesson on Friday. He was making a pretence of being interested, which we all know is nonsense, because bosses in our service never know what’s going on at ground floor level! He asked for my lesson plan and when I produced it, he said, “No, I mean the one that shows your programme for the year.” Duh! That’s a scheme of work, idiot.
 
All time on my other job has been spent organising and panicking for the presentation evening yesterday. 
 
It did go well. We had guests from our awarding body and other organisations that have worked with us, and the young people were awarded a whole range of certificates for the work they’ve done. The good news is that the awarding body and another national organisation want copies of our photos for their newsletters. The bad news is that I didn’t get authorisation for the cost of the professional photographer and just booked him without clearance. Oops! Hopefully, the promise of high profile publicity will enable my boss to overlook that “little” bit of forgetfulness!
 
So that’s work.
 
I got an email from Emma that’s a bit worrying. When I stayed with her, she told me that she thought she has OCD. It seems that every morning she goes into the bathroom and spends some considerable time doing mental rituals. This has only been since she’s had Jack. I know next to nothing about OCD, and really didn’t know what to say to her – the last thing I wanted to do was give her wrong information. In the end, I simply said that it sounded to me like she was preparing herself for the day, almost like some deeply religious people might prepare themselves for the day with prayer. Chris, her partner, knows about this and is tolerant, quite obviously thinking she’ll get over it.
 
Anyway, this is her email:
 
How are you? How’s work?
 
Sorry to e-mail you but I am feeling really low, the OCD is still happening. Yesterday morning when I was doing my bit in the toilet I couldn’t stop crying, even thought what kind of mother am I to have to do this ritual and is there any point in me being around! Can’t believe I have just typed that but they say it helps to write down how you are feeling?
 
Does it mean because I was crying about it that it is now going away? I am getting up at 5:45am in the morning just to do it! Think I am over tired, I know I wouldn’t do anything to hurt myself but it really scared me yesterday morning, although Chris is great, I don’t think he understands how low I am, he keeps saying I will get better and that’s it! I have actually called my health visitor today and she is coming around on Tuesday, I am petrified that they are going to take Jack away from us! What the hell is wrong with me? I have everything I want so why am I a mess?
 
Sorry to e-mail you about this but I figured I need to do this more often… Have you any advice?
 
I truly don’t know what to say to her. I reassured her that no way will anyone take Jack from her – she and Chris are fantastic parents and her morning rituals don’t affect him in any way. The rest of my email was encouraging her to talk to a professional and platitudes, which are useless, but I can’t give her wrong information.
 
I do hope that she can get over this and that I knew how to help her. I can’t help thinking that maybe it’s a manifestation of postnatal depression, but I really don’t know.