Re: Okay... and even and odd

[Guest guest]

>I need some ideas... we manged to get over the other obsessions and

>now here is the new one, Tapping! He taps on one side and has to tap

>the other side to be even, he doesn't know why, I asked him if there

>was a feeling inside while he did this, he doesn't know. This is a

>hard one to put on the behavior ladder. I have had such success

>between the behavior group and the Prozac, but I am not sure how to

>approach this one, I know it is a slippery sloap to other counting

>stuff. Any ideas would be very helpful, JA

I'm not any help here, but this is exactly what I mean when I'm talking

about 's " twitchyness. " It's not like when you have an

involuntary twitch in an eye muscle. It's turning his head to the left

and then having to turn it to the right, but he went too far, so now he

has to do it again to the left, but it felt different, etc. He says there

is no anxiety or fear associated with it (he's 11, so I pretty much trust

his understanding of what makes him anxious) he just " has to. "

Kathy, we started the Zoloft at what the doctor called a high dose for

his age and weight, and increased it after the first week. Oh, this dr.

knows ZIP about SSRIs for kids. And because I'm just a mom with a teensy

bit of knowledge (a very dangerous thing) I really hesitated to ask about

the SSRIs and now hesitate to continue it! Believe me, the LAST thing we

need at this point is meltdown.

Peggy

[Guest guest]

Peggy,

My son (15) had some movements like you described. They really

seemed more deliberate, not involuntary; I recall worrying about

possible Tourettes/tics. He also had facial things he did. This was

back when his OCD was pretty bad. All this eventually stopped when a

lot of his obvious OCD behaviors also got better. But you are right,

there didn't seem to be any anxiety related to at least some of it,

it was just a " has to " thing.

>

> I'm not any help here, but this is exactly what I mean when I'm

talking

> about 's " twitchyness. " It's not like when you have an

> involuntary twitch in an eye muscle. It's turning his head to the

left

> and then having to turn it to the right, but he went too far, so

now he

> has to do it again to the left, but it felt different, etc. He says

there

> is no anxiety or fear associated with it (he's 11, so I pretty much

trust

> his understanding of what makes him anxious) he just " has to. "

[Guest guest]

The voluntary/involuntary/unvoluntary axes and the ability of some kids to

suppress tics -- and the fact that some of it seems like excessive, but

age-appropriate, obnoxiousness, makes this more complex than it seems at the

outset. Here's a link:

http://www.tourettesyndrome.net/tourette_primer4.htm#How%20Does%20the%20Individu\

al%20Experie

> Peggy,

> My son (15) had some movements like you described. They really

> seemed more deliberate, not involuntary; I recall worrying about

> possible Tourettes/tics. He also had facial things he did. This was

> back when his OCD was pretty bad. All this eventually stopped when a

> lot of his obvious OCD behaviors also got better. But you are right,

> there didn't seem to be any anxiety related to at least some of it,

> it was just a " has to " thing.

>

>

[Guest guest]

>

> > My son (15) had some movements like you described.  They really

> > seemed more deliberate, not involuntary; I recall worrying about

> > possible Tourettes/tics.  He also had facial things he did.  This

> was

> > back when his OCD was pretty bad.  All this eventually stopped when

> a

> > lot of his obvious OCD behaviors also got better.  But you are

> right,

> > there didn't seem to be any anxiety related to at least some of it,

> > it was just a " has to " thing.

> >

> >   

>

We had an interesting discussion on the TS board recently regarding the

fact that the Obesessions and Compulsions that are associated with TS

often seem to be somewhat different (in nature) than the Obsessions and

Compulsions that people with OCD alone experience.

The general concensus was that our kids with TS/OCD often had OCD which

didn't really produce a sense of " fear " or what most people would term

" anxiety " , but was often associated more with a need to have things

feel " right " . (Not to say that the couldn't also have the traditional

fear based OCD type cycle).

IOW, the child might not necessarily feel like, " some one is going to

die if I step on a crack " as much as " It just doesn't fell right to

step on a crack " In either case, the " need " to avoid stepping on the

crack was extremely strong -- It was just different.

Jeanne

jwestpha@...

NBCT - Exceptional Needs (2000)