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[Guest guest]

Hi all-

I just found/joined this site and have been reading with interest. I am

still not sure if we completely 'belong' here, but nowhere else seems to fit

either ... I welcome any input and sharing with others going through similar

things!

My 8 year old son has had issues (!) for a couple of years now, and we got

formal testing this summer, which confirmed he has " features " of OCD, among

other things. (including likely mood disorder, major sensory issues, and a

highly gifted/LD profile)

His biggest symptom is inflexibility/explosiveness (we know Ross Greene's

book from cover to cover), plus getting 'stuck' as we call it ... which seems to

be the feature of OCD, as the doc attributes it. He has totally rigid

thinking, and gets locked on ideas - can't function til whatever it is is

done/etc. to his satisfaction. (often unreasonable or impossible - ugh!)

He's not into rituals or some of the typical OCD headliners ... his stuff is

more subtle, and debatable is it's in fact OCD? It seems to be more a

problem of obsessive thinking. Everyday examples abound - a typical one is if he

can't find some obscure thing. The other night, for example, he out of the

blue decided he needed to find a story he'd written about 6 months ago .. for a

summer writing assignment he wanted to continue the story, and he *had* to

find the original story to continue. Started out casually, we helped him look

initially, and things escalated as it became apparent it was not to be

found. He tantrumed and was overcome with anxiety - he HAD to have it,

couldn't

think of anything else, would sit in one spot til it was found, we must drop

everything and continue to look for him ... he was virtually bouncing off the

walls with stress. No amount of reassurance or ideas about how to move on

were accepted (let's start a sequel to the story ... we can add a transition

chapter when we do find it ... Daddy lost his cell phone recently and it turned

up out of the blue .... trying to shift gears and find a distraction, all to

no avail). For the record the story has still not been found, and he still

persists on asking me throughout the day if I've found it, etc. These kind

of examples pop up multiple times a day.

Anyway - I could ramble on and on, but I guess I am curious about how

specifically your kids fit the profile of the OCD diagnosis? Is something as

fringe as what my son struggles with perhaps truly OCD, or more likely a facet

of

his other issues? Obviously no one is here to diagnose/etc - just mostly

curious about the various ways OCD can present. He doesn't fit the exact

criteria I find in searching/reading online.

Currently my son has started some new meds (we'd tried Zoloft - relatively

low dosage, compared to what I see referred to here - for a period last year

for his 'anxiety' diagnosis at the time - didn't see improvement) ... he is

now taking .5 mg Risperdal (for the mood disorder, apparently) and 5 mg of

Lexapro for some other symptoms, including some of the obsessive thinking. Not

quite a month since starting, and improvement is hard to measure -- sometimes

he seems more 'himself' and easier to deal with, then we encounter an episode

like from the past and it seems hopeless. Ugh.

I look forward to learning from everyone here - thanks for bearing with me,

this is so overwhelming. :o/

Liz

dh Bob

mom to Jack (8), (4), and Kate (2)