Paige was recently diagnosed with Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder (OCD), with at least eight different subtypes presenting. Looking back, she has most likely been living with OCD for much of her life, but over the past two years, its presence and impact have increased significantly.

And unfortunately, OCD doesn’t care about the things you love.

She is currently participating in intensive therapy to learn how to manage and live with OCD. Treatment takes courage, patience, repetition, and time. There is no quick fix. Facing the very things your brain is desperately telling you to avoid can be incredibly difficult.

OCD isn’t a preference for cleanliness.

It isn’t being organized.

It isn’t simply “overthinking.”

And it isn’t something someone can just decide to stop doing.

For some people, OCD can be disabling.  For Paige, OCD is disabling and can sometimes even go as far as making difficult if not impossible for her to leave not only our house but even her own room.  We are now raising funds to help Paige receive a Service Dog.  A Service Dog is not a pet!  This dog will work with Paige to help stop her when she is in the throws of an episode that causes her to scratch or self-harm by interrupting her behavior, it will provide deep pressure therapy when she is in throws of an anxiety or panic attack from Obstrussive thoughts, and more.  These jobs that her Service Dog will be specifically trained to do for her will allow her to once again enjoy doing things she loves like traveling and visiting theme parks as well as allow her to attend college in a few years by providing help and support when we can't be with her full time.

Paige is learning to fight back against OCD one difficult step at a time. Some days OCD may win a few rounds. Other days, Paige will. What matters is that she keeps showing up and doing the incredibly hard work of learning that she—not OCD—gets to decide how she lives her life.

Training a service dog to meet our child’s requirements can be very costly. On average it costs between $40,000-60,000 to raise, train, and place a service dog at 4 Paws for Ability. While 4 Paws for Ability fundraises to help cover a significant portion of this cost, families are tasked with raising $20,000 of that amount or $23,000 if receiving a poodle, doodle or papillon. We hope that we can receive assistance from our beloved family and friends to help make our service dog dream a reality.