Hi IM's. I'm looking for advice on something that is hard to explain to those who haven't been affected or understand what this is. When I was a child, my Mum suffered severe OCD (obsessive compulsive disorder). It got so bad that she will now be medicated for it for the rest of her life. As many know, OCD, depression & anxiety disorders can stem from childhood abuse, which my Mum was abused as a child. It can also be hereditary I'm guessing because as a child, just like my Mum, I had anxiety & OCD too. As a child my form of OCD involved phobias (having to touch something a certain amount of times or blink a certain number of times). It was very life controlling & as I got older & became a Mum, those phobias disappeared when I was put on medication for my post natal anxiety, & now my OCD is more about being organised, things being colour coordinated or in size from tallest to shortest, etc. My son, 4, is now showing early signs of OCD & I want to tackle it now so that he doesn't feel consumed by it like I did as a child. For example, the other day at the supermarket he saw something & asked me to look, so I did, but he wasn't convinced that I saw, so he asked me to look again & when I did, he had a tantrum & said I didn't look properly, & tried to force me to stop, stand there & look a third time. At night time he has a phobia where he says goodnight to me in three different ways - "I love you", then I have to say it back the same. Then "I love you so much" & again I have to repeat it back, & lastly "I love you too" & then I have to say that back. If I don't say it back the same & in that order, he has a tantrum & tries to force me to start again & say it in his order. I feel it should only be "I love you Mum, goodnight", just once, & then he go to sleep, but he seems controlled by the certain need to say it the way he does. I find this repetitiveness obsessive in a non healthy way. Just now at lunch he cracked it because I wouldn't repeat a sentence exactly the way he wanted me to say it instead of the way I worded it. I'm really worried as these are the first signs I had when I was affected once. What can I do?! Hope this makes sense.
Son showing signs of OCD
Son showing signs of OCD
Posted in:
Mental Health, Parenthood Guilt, Health & Wellbeing, Behaviour, Kids
2 Replies
Hi my son has OCD. I've found the support of a paediatrician to keep an eye in things helpful. As far as treatment cognitive behaviour therapy (CBT), interrupting new behaviours before they become to established and for my son a very low dose medication helped.
This sounds like it's hard for you to see him like this :(
Poor little boy sounds like he's battling something in his head. What does he say when u ask him why he wants you to say it in the very precise way?
My boy is very particular but nothing like that, I think if it were me I would just go with it, say it how he likes, look 3 times etc, if it's that important to him.... hopefully he will be more consumed with other things as he grows and grow out of it? Obviously I'm not a professional, but as another mum I think that's what I'd do for now until I felt he needed to see someone x