Guest guest Posted March 1, 2004 Report Share Posted March 1, 2004 Hi, Jeanne. I don't know if what your son is experiencing is OCD but I can tell you that sometimes noises really really get on my nerves--car music is one of them. My senses become very overloaded and while I don't scream, there are times when I want to. Being in a car with music playing can make me feel very trapped and anxious and overwhelmed. Maybe your son has a sensory thing going on. Kelley in NV Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted March 1, 2004 Report Share Posted March 1, 2004 With my daughter at around the same age, the music problem was that certain songs were " wrong " in that they triggered death and killing obsessions (these were among my child's main obsessions too, for the first two years following onset) and so anxiety. Primarily these were slow-paced songs, ballads and etc. Instrumental music and classics were invariably death-related according to Kel's OCD. She reacted when triggered the same as your son does. My daughter was very anxious all the time in the car if we were listening to the radio (or a new tape) that she didn't know for certain was free of " death " songs. The radio was particularly difficult since she had no control over what was coming next and so was braced to be triggered all the time. During this same time she could not watch TV for the same reason, no control and extremely anxious over what image might be flashed next. She was so sensitive that seeing that cartoon thing where the character is surprised and the eyes fly out of the head would send her into high anxiety meltdown. (At that time another major obsession was cutting out eyes.) If this doesn't sound right given your son and his OCD, think of his major obsessional themes and look for a link from those and the type of music you were listening to when he had one of these anxiety reactions. Does he get triggered when *he* is control of the music, ex. you are listening to one of his familiar/accepted tape or CD? If not that may tell you something about what is triggering him. I agree that his reaction to music in the car is most likely OCD/anxiety related rather than a behavior or regular control issue. We did ERP on this by listening to the radio for a short while then turning it off, then next time a little longer, etc. We also had the radio " scan " which really went a long way to get her over her fear and anxiety of " what's coming next " . She usually got to laughing over this exposure because inevitably the radio jumping from one station to the next created some humorous " jump cuts. " Take care, Kathy R. in Indiana ----- Original Message ----- > I'm at a loss here, and I'm hoping the combined brains of this group > can solve a problem here. > > My son (7yo) is definitely having some sort of obsession around music, > but we can't figure out what it exactly is: > > We take lots of fairly long car rides. (All of our doctors are at least > an hour away :-( ). Usually my son loves to sing and listen to music, > but starting about 6-8 months ago (when the PANDAS started), he's had > an intermittent problem with us having music on in the car. > > More often than not, he's fine with it. But other times, for no reason > that we can discern he just has this huge, panic-like reaction. He'll > begin shrieking that we have to turn the music off right away. He > becomes pretty much hysterical. (Which is one reason why I think it is > part of the OCD. He's just totally freaked out). > > Sometimes he begs us to turn off the music completely. Other times we > can switch from the radio to a CD, or switch to a different CD. > Sometimes, it's just a matter of skipping a particular song. There > doesn't seem to be any rhyme or reason to it either. A song that he > loved and sang along with on Monday, may totally throw him over the > edge on Tuesday and then be fine again on Wednesday. > > He insists that it isn't an obsession; he's just " not in the mood for > music. " But, we've come to realize that these overreactions that are > completely out of proportion to the event usually are OCD. > > If we turn the music off, he's fine. We've also tried a few times to > treat it as though it was just a behavior issue, and maybe lower the > volume a bit and said, " The rest of us want to hear some music. " That > just doesn't work at all. He ends up crying and begging and plain out > hysterical. > > Can anyone think of a rational (OK...maybe that's not the best word for > OCD) reason for him to do this. I feel like if we could get to the > root of it, we could start working on it. > > thanks, > > > Jeanne > jwestpha@... > NBCT - Exceptional Needs (2000) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted March 2, 2004 Report Share Posted March 2, 2004 My son likes our car rides to be quiet sometimes. He even will ask to have a contest on who can be quiet the longest. Maybe he has heard that song sooooo many times " in his head " that it is truly upseting to hear it anymore. Songs can really get stuck in an OCD head. I know first hand. My son and I are constantly asking my husband to change the song or JUST TURN IT OFF! I truly believe it is OCD and it is upseting him and you should grant his wishes on this one. It is horrible to listen to a song that you are so sick of hearing, and believe me in an OCD head you can go to sleep hearing songs repeated in your head. Beverly in CA Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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