Guest guest Posted January 29, 2009 Report Share Posted January 29, 2009 My son also manifested with intrusive thoughts ocd at age 10 - literally overnight. There are lots of people here with that " 10 " magic number! I know the nightmare. I remember only too well. Your son, however, does have his compulsion and that is to tell his thoughts. He confesses to try to alleviate the anxiety. There is an excellent book called " The imp of the mind " about Pure-o. It talks about how ocd takes what you are not and plays with that in your mind, because that is what would be the most distressing to that child. So knives or hurting someone are thoughts that would be super distressing to your son because that is so against who he is. What our psychologist helped us to understand is there is nothing wrong with the thoughts. Everyone has strange thoughts that come and go, sometimes so quickly we don't even register them. It is the anxiety behind the thoughts that is the problem because the anxiety picks up on the thought, which then stays and the anxiety heightens, which makes the thought not be able to go away and because the thought stays, the anxiety increases more, and it is a circular issue. Many limit the number of times a child can confess their thoughts and work down because the confessing gives validity to the thought. They need to learn " a thought is just a thought " and no more. We used to save our junk mail and show our son how it was marked " urgent " " important " " you won! " and we would read inside and someplace in small print, somewhere, there it was just an empty promise. There was not prize, no urgency, just a ploy to get our time and attention. We talked about how once you began to recognize this junk mail, you knew although it looked so important, it was still just junk mail, like his thoughts. I knew they were marked so urgent and stressful and upsetting and confusing, but they were still just a junk thought, not worthy of our attention. Many use medication to help ease the anxiety. That can be a very positive thing. I cannot imagine having to deal with that as a child, let alone as an adult. We, personally, used products from Native Remedies (www.nativeremedies.com) with tremendous success. We ordered Purecalm and Mindsoothe, Jr and then got Coromega (omegas). We doubled the recommended dose of purecalm from 10 drops 3x day to 20 drops 3x day and the first day, my son was freed from those thoughts for about 6 hours at a time. It would wear off about the time his next dose was due. After a month, we tapered down to 2x day and then a month later to 1x day. He has been symptom free for 2 1/2 years now and no longer takes anything but vitamins (a handful of different ones). I know all kids are different and not everything works the same, but I wanted to let you know how much hope there is and that this is not the way it will be forever. You are in my thoughts and prayers. in TN Subject: New to all of this To: Date: Thursday, January 29, 2009, 9:42 AM Hi all, I live in England with my hubby & 3 amazing children. Somehow (I say that because this has happened literally overnight) we seem to have entered the world of OCD... at least it looks like it. We are currently waiting on the good old NHS to give us an appointment for an assessment. However, after much research and seeking advice from people we know who are clinical psychologists with experience in kids mental health it would appear that our 10 yr old son is battling OCD. Four weeks ago he was a normal, happy, sensitve and loving son (he still is but with an extra dimension) with not a care in the world. He has always been extra sensitive and rather quirky when he was younger. Also, due to some huge difficult changes in our lives, he suffered from PTSD a few years ago. Our psychologist friend has said that it's possible that this has been tiggered again and is manifesting as OCD now. Just less than 4 wks ago something took place outside our house, nothing huge but a bit 'scary' and since then he's not been the same. He is suffering from intrusive thoughts constantly but not so much compulsive rituals. He does, however, hold himself and move in certain ways to control his intrusive thoughts urges. For example... his main intrusive thought is about what if he harms someone... " what if I want to knife someone, maybe THAT'S why I am going into the kitchen... " and so he now avoids the kitchen or walks past with his body up against the opposite wall or when he does go in there he has his hands guarding his eyes in case he sees a knife. He has to hold his hands certain ways just 'to be sure' he doesn't have a knife in his hand (when he clearly does NOT). " what if I am swearing with my fingers? pulling a nasty face? wanting to bump into you so you get hurt by a car? distract dad when he's driving so he will crash? standing a certain way by my teacher so she will kiss me? " and so on and so on and so on. In all other ways he's the same child as before... not become aggressive AT-ALL... he is FULLY aware of what is happening in his mind and hates it. He desperately wants help. We have reassured him that this is some kind of illness, we have prayed with him and reminded him he's special and that he REALLY is who he is in his HEART and not his mind at the moment. He would never (and has never) hurt a fly and finds the thoughts so distressing as he loves us so much that he's wanted to start his life over. As well as the harming thoughts he has thoughts that somehow HE needs to prevent any harm coming to us. His mind is such a huge mess. I realise we are waiting on a diagnosis however we have found reading about OCD and Pure-O and CBT has helped us alot. I guess I really just wanted to introduce myself and also see if anyone else has a child who suffers from intrusive thoughts but not so much the rituals/compulsions ? Thank you for ANY advice and input you can give. As you can imagine our family feels we are in a total nightmare that we can't wake up from. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted January 29, 2009 Report Share Posted January 29, 2009 My son also manifested with intrusive thoughts ocd at age 10 - literally overnight. There are lots of people here with that " 10 " magic number! I know the nightmare. I remember only too well. Your son, however, does have his compulsion and that is to tell his thoughts. He confesses to try to alleviate the anxiety. There is an excellent book called " The imp of the mind " about Pure-o. It talks about how ocd takes what you are not and plays with that in your mind, because that is what would be the most distressing to that child. So knives or hurting someone are thoughts that would be super distressing to your son because that is so against who he is. What our psychologist helped us to understand is there is nothing wrong with the thoughts. Everyone has strange thoughts that come and go, sometimes so quickly we don't even register them. It is the anxiety behind the thoughts that is the problem because the anxiety picks up on the thought, which then stays and the anxiety heightens, which makes the thought not be able to go away and because the thought stays, the anxiety increases more, and it is a circular issue. Many limit the number of times a child can confess their thoughts and work down because the confessing gives validity to the thought. They need to learn " a thought is just a thought " and no more. We used to save our junk mail and show our son how it was marked " urgent " " important " " you won! " and we would read inside and someplace in small print, somewhere, there it was just an empty promise. There was not prize, no urgency, just a ploy to get our time and attention. We talked about how once you began to recognize this junk mail, you knew although it looked so important, it was still just junk mail, like his thoughts. I knew they were marked so urgent and stressful and upsetting and confusing, but they were still just a junk thought, not worthy of our attention. Many use medication to help ease the anxiety. That can be a very positive thing. I cannot imagine having to deal with that as a child, let alone as an adult. We, personally, used products from Native Remedies (www.nativeremedies.com) with tremendous success. We ordered Purecalm and Mindsoothe, Jr and then got Coromega (omegas). We doubled the recommended dose of purecalm from 10 drops 3x day to 20 drops 3x day and the first day, my son was freed from those thoughts for about 6 hours at a time. It would wear off about the time his next dose was due. After a month, we tapered down to 2x day and then a month later to 1x day. He has been symptom free for 2 1/2 years now and no longer takes anything but vitamins (a handful of different ones). I know all kids are different and not everything works the same, but I wanted to let you know how much hope there is and that this is not the way it will be forever. You are in my thoughts and prayers. in TN Subject: New to all of this To: Date: Thursday, January 29, 2009, 9:42 AM Hi all, I live in England with my hubby & 3 amazing children. Somehow (I say that because this has happened literally overnight) we seem to have entered the world of OCD... at least it looks like it. We are currently waiting on the good old NHS to give us an appointment for an assessment. However, after much research and seeking advice from people we know who are clinical psychologists with experience in kids mental health it would appear that our 10 yr old son is battling OCD. Four weeks ago he was a normal, happy, sensitve and loving son (he still is but with an extra dimension) with not a care in the world. He has always been extra sensitive and rather quirky when he was younger. Also, due to some huge difficult changes in our lives, he suffered from PTSD a few years ago. Our psychologist friend has said that it's possible that this has been tiggered again and is manifesting as OCD now. Just less than 4 wks ago something took place outside our house, nothing huge but a bit 'scary' and since then he's not been the same. He is suffering from intrusive thoughts constantly but not so much compulsive rituals. He does, however, hold himself and move in certain ways to control his intrusive thoughts urges. For example... his main intrusive thought is about what if he harms someone... " what if I want to knife someone, maybe THAT'S why I am going into the kitchen... " and so he now avoids the kitchen or walks past with his body up against the opposite wall or when he does go in there he has his hands guarding his eyes in case he sees a knife. He has to hold his hands certain ways just 'to be sure' he doesn't have a knife in his hand (when he clearly does NOT). " what if I am swearing with my fingers? pulling a nasty face? wanting to bump into you so you get hurt by a car? distract dad when he's driving so he will crash? standing a certain way by my teacher so she will kiss me? " and so on and so on and so on. In all other ways he's the same child as before... not become aggressive AT-ALL... he is FULLY aware of what is happening in his mind and hates it. He desperately wants help. We have reassured him that this is some kind of illness, we have prayed with him and reminded him he's special and that he REALLY is who he is in his HEART and not his mind at the moment. He would never (and has never) hurt a fly and finds the thoughts so distressing as he loves us so much that he's wanted to start his life over. As well as the harming thoughts he has thoughts that somehow HE needs to prevent any harm coming to us. His mind is such a huge mess. I realise we are waiting on a diagnosis however we have found reading about OCD and Pure-O and CBT has helped us alot. I guess I really just wanted to introduce myself and also see if anyone else has a child who suffers from intrusive thoughts but not so much the rituals/compulsions ? Thank you for ANY advice and input you can give. As you can imagine our family feels we are in a total nightmare that we can't wake up from. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted January 31, 2009 Report Share Posted January 31, 2009 Hi " Jerrardy " , so sorry your son is going through this. My son (just turned 20) also battles " bad thought " OCD. He doesn't talk about it really, but most of it is the " scrupulosity " type, where it is more related to religion, God, etc. Though wanting to be a " nice " person (he is a really nice person) I'm sure any mean/harmful/whatever thoughts he has about others has him feeling like a bad person too, and that God wouldn't approve.... Such a mess! I'm so glad your son seems to understand that it's OCD causing his thoughts. My son has trouble understanding this (and he's older at 20!), he feels the thoughts are " him " but that his OCD just makes them 1000 times worse, more constant, etc. also has Aspergers (related to autism) and I think the Aspie part (they can be sort of literal, logical...) makes it hard for him to see the thoughts originating due to OCD. 's OCD first began as compulsions, rituals, no " bad thoughts " . Anyway, short story, the bad thoughts began later in high school, the " original " OCD stuff was better by then. I hope your son feels some relief from what you & he are reading about OCD. There are some children's books too. I don't know which one might be best to read regarding more the " thought " type OCD. (North Carolina/USA) > > Hi all, > > I live in England with my hubby & 3 amazing children. Somehow (I say > that because this has happened literally overnight) we seem to have > entered the world of OCD... at least it looks like it. We are > currently waiting on the good old NHS to give us an appointment for > an assessment. However, after much research and seeking advice from > people we know who are clinical psychologists with experience in kids > mental health it would appear that our 10 yr old son is battling OCD. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Join the conversation
You are posting as a guest. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.
Note: Your post will require moderator approval before it will be visible.