Re: OCD and thoughts of harming

[Guest guest]

I am a 35 year old mother of two who have OCD. Both of my boys have also

been diagnosed with OCD which leads me to believe that it may be genetic. We

are all on medication and my children see a therapist and psychiatrist

regularly at a children's hospital.

It has always seemed strange to me that OCD can create so many different

types of obsessions. I have one son who has a mild case of OCD and worries

about something happening to his family to the point where it would make him

sick. My oldest son has a more difficult time with the disease. At one point

he says that he was seeing and hearing things which eventually led us to

hospitalizing him. He doesn't have these problems now but occasionally he

says that the inner voice inside his head tells him to hurt himself, or that

inner voice tells him he can't wear a certain garment or something bad will

happen, or he has to lay a certain way in bed-list goes on. He gets very

upset because he can't get these thoughts out of his head leading him to

perform some sort of ritual like tapping his pencil so many times etc... I

call these brief thoughts brain hiccups which if severe enough can last all

day or days, weeks etc...

I, however, have had the exact same thoughts as your little girl. My

OCD behavior kicked in around ten years of age. I hid my thoughts from

friends and family until I was in my mid twenties. I was scared and

embarrassed thinking that everyone else around me must be normal and that I

was the only one that was different until I met with a psychiatrist who

assured me that I wasn't crazy and that many people have this disease and

cope with it everyday. For me at least medication was the way to go. I take

200mg of luvox everyday and this is the only medication that completely

eliminates these thoughts with occasional cycling.

Now as for your daughter you have to let her know that usually

people with ocd dwell on things that frightened them which increases their

anxiety and may lead to depression. The thoughts can be so disturbing that

the person can be too embarrassed and frightened to tell anyone. These

thoughts frighten her and I am sure that it makes you feel very

uncomfortable. But you have to realize that she knows that these thoughts

aren't normal and she can't stop them from popping in to her head-this is

why they are so distressing. Please let her know that these thoughts aren't

really her thoughts that they are brain hiccups. If she feels like these

disturbing thoughts are really hers it will heighten her anxiety causing

her to dislike herself and pull away from the people she loves the most to

avoid these thoughts. She needs to know that there are other children and

adults that have the same disturbing thoughts that she has had and that she

will learn to deal with them through therapy and medication.

I believe that once you find the correct medicine for her and help

her understand that it is a disease which others suffer from too like

diabetes that she will become your happy carefree child again.

Good luck,

> From: chrylcasim

> Reply To:

> Sent: Thursday, November 18, 2004 12:51 PM

> To:

> Subject: OCD and thoughts of harming

>

>

> I am new to this. Just wondering if there is anyone else out there

> with similar situation. My daughter is 7 years old and was just

> diagnosed with OCD two months ago. She gets thoughts of killing me,

> her dad, and her 22 month-old brother. she feels she is a bad

> person for having those thoughts and thinks she should not be with

> us. Sometimes just seeing a knife will give her thoughts of

> stabbing. She is seeing a psychiatrist who prescribed prozac 5 mg,

> which she has been taking for two months. Her thoughts seem to just

> increase. I am in the process of changing her psychiatrist because

> I thought she needed a doctor that specializes in OCD. She gets

> suicidal thoughts, which terrify me. Not sure if she needs to be

> hospitalized, but also scared to death at what they will do to her

> at a psychiatric hospital. Looking for others who can relate and

> share experiences.

>

>

>

>

>

> Our list archives, bookmarks, files, and chat feature may be accessed at:

> http://health.groups.yahoo.com/group// .

> Our list advisors are Gail B. , Ed.D., Tamar Chansky, Ph.D., Aureen

> Pinto Wagner, Ph.D., and Dan Geller, M.D. Our list moderators are

> Birkhan, Castle, Fowler, Kathy Hammes, Joye, Kathy

> Mac, Gail Pesses, and Kathy . Subscription issues or

> suggestions may be addressed to Louis Harkins, list owner, at

> louisharkins@... , louisharkins@... ,

> louisharkins@... .

>

>

>

>

>

>

[Guest guest]

Hi ,

Our son has suffered with bad thoughts in the past prior to

introduction of Risperdal to his list of daily medications. Lee

Baer's book " Imp Of The Mind: Exploring The Silent Epidemic Of

Obsessive Bad Thoughts " is an excellent resource. It is available

at Amazon in paperback for as little as three dollars used.

Take care.

Louis

On Thu, 18 Nov 2004 16:24:56 -0500, Robbins,

wrote:

> I am a 35 year old mother of two who have OCD. Both of my boys have also

> been diagnosed with OCD which leads me to believe that it may be genetic. We

> are all on medication and my children see a therapist and psychiatrist

> regularly at a children's hospital.

>

> It has always seemed strange to me that OCD can create so many different

> types of obsessions. I have one son who has a mild case of OCD and worries

> about something happening to his family to the point where it would make him

> sick. My oldest son has a more difficult time with the disease. At one point

> he says that he was seeing and hearing things which eventually led us to

> hospitalizing him. He doesn't have these problems now but occasionally he

> says that the inner voice inside his head tells him to hurt himself, or that

> inner voice tells him he can't wear a certain garment or something bad will

> happen, or he has to lay a certain way in bed-list goes on. He gets very

> upset because he can't get these thoughts out of his head leading him to

> perform some sort of ritual like tapping his pencil so many times etc... I

> call these brief thoughts brain hiccups which if severe enough can last all

> day or days, weeks etc...

>

> I, however, have had the exact same thoughts as your little girl. My

> OCD behavior kicked in around ten years of age. I hid my thoughts from

> friends and family until I was in my mid twenties. I was scared and

> embarrassed thinking that everyone else around me must be normal and that I

> was the only one that was different until I met with a psychiatrist who

> assured me that I wasn't crazy and that many people have this disease and

> cope with it everyday. For me at least medication was the way to go. I take

> 200mg of luvox everyday and this is the only medication that completely

> eliminates these thoughts with occasional cycling.

>

> Now as for your daughter you have to let her know that usually

> people with ocd dwell on things that frightened them which increases their

> anxiety and may lead to depression. The thoughts can be so disturbing that

> the person can be too embarrassed and frightened to tell anyone. These

> thoughts frighten her and I am sure that it makes you feel very

> uncomfortable. But you have to realize that she knows that these thoughts

> aren't normal and she can't stop them from popping in to her head-this is

> why they are so distressing. Please let her know that these thoughts aren't

> really her thoughts that they are brain hiccups. If she feels like these

> disturbing thoughts are really hers it will heighten her anxiety causing

> her to dislike herself and pull away from the people she loves the most to

> avoid these thoughts. She needs to know that there are other children and

> adults that have the same disturbing thoughts that she has had and that she

> will learn to deal with them through therapy and medication.

>

> I believe that once you find the correct medicine for her and help

> her understand that it is a disease which others suffer from too like

> diabetes that she will become your happy carefree child again.

>

> Good luck,

>

>

>

> > From: chrylcasim

> > Reply To:

> > Sent: Thursday, November 18, 2004 12:51 PM

> > To:

>

>

> > Subject: OCD and thoughts of harming

> >

> >

> > I am new to this. Just wondering if there is anyone else out there

> > with similar situation. My daughter is 7 years old and was just

> > diagnosed with OCD two months ago. She gets thoughts of killing me,

> > her dad, and her 22 month-old brother. she feels she is a bad

> > person for having those thoughts and thinks she should not be with

> > us. Sometimes just seeing a knife will give her thoughts of

> > stabbing. She is seeing a psychiatrist who prescribed prozac 5 mg,

> > which she has been taking for two months. Her thoughts seem to just

> > increase. I am in the process of changing her psychiatrist because

> > I thought she needed a doctor that specializes in OCD. She gets

> > suicidal thoughts, which terrify me. Not sure if she needs to be

> > hospitalized, but also scared to death at what they will do to her

> > at a psychiatric hospital. Looking for others who can relate and

> > share experiences.

> >

> >

> >

> >

> >

> > Our list archives, bookmarks, files, and chat feature may be accessed at:

> > http://health.groups.yahoo.com/group// .

> > Our list advisors are Gail B. , Ed.D., Tamar Chansky, Ph.D., Aureen

> > Pinto Wagner, Ph.D., and Dan Geller, M.D. Our list moderators are

> > Birkhan, Castle, Fowler, Kathy Hammes, Joye, Kathy

> > Mac, Gail Pesses, and Kathy . Subscription issues or

> > suggestions may be addressed to Louis Harkins, list owner, at

> > louisharkins@... , louisharkins@... ,

> > louisharkins@... .

> >

> >

> >

> >

> >

> >

[Guest guest]

My daughter had the same type of OCD -- thoughts that she wanted to kill

herself. It was very distressing for me because I had a brother who

really did kill himself. The difference, though, is that my daughter did

not REALLY want to kill herself, she just had constant obsessions that

she *might* kill herself. She couldn't be around knives or plastic bags

or anything like that without getting really afraid. Of course, when she

told me that she wanted to kill herself I freaked out, but after a lot of

talking about exactly what she was feeling and a trip to her therapist,

we realized that this was OCD and not that she really wanted to end it

all. Anyway, she responded really well to ERP in this case. Every time

she got a thought of killing herself she was to pretend to kill herself.

At first this caused her a lot of anxiety, but after a few days we were

having a lot of fun with it. We made a big production of it and tried to

exaggerate (in order to mock OCD) as much as possible. It seemed like

that would only make it worse, but it helped tremendously and she is not

having much trouble with those type of thoughts anymore. Yes, you need a

therapist that specializes in OCD. They can be tricky to find, but don't

give up. It is amazing what a difference it makes.

On Thu, 18 Nov 2004 17:51:27 -0000 " chrylcasim "

writes:

>

>

> I am new to this. Just wondering if there is anyone else out there

>

> with similar situation. My daughter is 7 years old and was just

> diagnosed with OCD two months ago. She gets thoughts of killing me,

>

> her dad, and her 22 month-old brother. she feels she is a bad

> person for having those thoughts and thinks she should not be with

> us. Sometimes just seeing a knife will give her thoughts of

> stabbing. She is seeing a psychiatrist who prescribed prozac 5 mg,

>

> which she has been taking for two months. Her thoughts seem to just

>

> increase. I am in the process of changing her psychiatrist because

>

> I thought she needed a doctor that specializes in OCD. She gets

> suicidal thoughts, which terrify me. Not sure if she needs to be

> hospitalized, but also scared to death at what they will do to her

> at a psychiatric hospital. Looking for others who can relate and

> share experiences.

>

>

>

>

>

>

[Guest guest]

Hi, and welcome to the group.

My 7 year old son also had thoughts of killing himself, killing me,

etc. These thoughts literally came on overnight and now we know he

has PANDAS. Anyway, he had such violent thoughts (like mutilation,

stabbing), and I was shocked that he could even concieve of such

things. To intensify things, he also has confessing and apologizing

compulsions. It is very difficult for a parent to watch their child

be tourtured with these inrusive thoughts. One things that helped

me so much was some words from a member of this group, Kathy. She

said that don't worry that your child will be psychologically

scarred from these episodes. They are very resilient and will in

mos cases return to their old selves (although it seems at times

that their " old selves " are far, far, away).

I also found that it helps to talk with your child about labeling

these thoughts. They should recognize them as soon as they pop up

as " silly " , " not me " , " OCD " , etc. Just any term that will

immediately let them discriminate betwen their own thoughts and the

intrusive thoughts. Then they can practice any number of techniques

to actaully stop the thought. My son likes to yell out " stop! " . He

is able to do this now on his own without confessing to me his

thoughts then asking is he is a bad person and then apologizing for

thinking it.

He began abilify shortly after his sevree onset and it is working so

well for him. The initial side effects left after a few weeks. The

only other drawback to abilify is weight gain. He has gained 20

pounds in 8 months. Luckily he was a little bit under weight going

in but it is still a lot for a little fellow like him to put on and

carry around. We are also going through cognitive bhavioral therapy

which will be there to help him when we take him off of the medicine

in June.

Good luck and let us know you your daughter progesses.

Tracey