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Staring as a symptom


JAG10

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Parents,

 

I was speaking with doc T about this intense staring my dd10 has been doing since she was 5. She's had two EEGs since then to rule out absence seizures (both negative). She stares with that glazed-over look like she's internally preoccupied rather than actually looking at anything. I think it might be OCD related because the staring has subsided in the past with SSRIs (which eventually would ultimately fail and result in behavioral activation). She can sometimes converse during these staring spells that look like daydreaming, but they can last for a few minutes.

 

I realize everyone can get into a comfortable stare now and then, but this is notably out of the norm in frequency and duration. So, we were curious if any of the other children were exhibiting this behavior?

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Glad you had seizures ruled out as my dd7 did that and she was having 100's of little seizures a day (found out caused probably by gluten intolerance).

 

She has also mentioned that sometimes she will get "stuck" looking at something and she can't turn away. She has not complained of this since we started abx so I think it was related to her pandas symptoms.

 

Susan

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She describes it as getting "stuck" looking at something also, but she has that glazed-over look rather than looking with intent, if that makes sense.

 

She does not do this mid-sentence or action. A verbal prompt does not usually get her to stop right away.

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She describes it as getting "stuck" looking at something also, but she has that glazed-over look rather than looking with intent, if that makes sense.

 

She does not do this mid-sentence or action. A verbal prompt does not usually get her to stop right away.

 

Yes, our DS13 has done this for years; he was first diagnosed with OCD (at 6), and we have subsequently discovered the PANDAS component to it all. This is one behavior that has essentially evaporated with abx treatment.

 

In kindergarten, his teacher used to tell us about how he would just "stare" for periods of time; we thought her choice of words were odd, as we'd seen it at home and more or less recognized it as him "zoning out" or "tuning out." Later on, as his vocabulary and self-awareness grew, he would describe it like your daughter: he'd "get stuck" and couldn't tune in or move on because some compulsion or obsession was commanding his attention at the time. And even if he could forego actually acting upon the compulsion at that point in time because of where he was (classroom) or what he was supposed to be doing (like taking a quiz), he would just stop in his tracks, unable to complete the task at hand or refocus.

 

Yes, I would call it an OCD-type behavior.

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Parents,

 

I was speaking with doc T about this intense staring my dd10 has been doing since she was 5. She's had two EEGs since then to rule out absence seizures (both negative). She stares with that glazed-over look like she's internally preoccupied rather than actually looking at anything. I think it might be OCD related because the staring has subsided in the past with SSRIs (which eventually would ultimately fail and result in behavioral activation). She can sometimes converse during these staring spells that look like daydreaming, but they can last for a few minutes.

 

I realize everyone can get into a comfortable stare now and then, but this is notably out of the norm in frequency and duration. So, we were curious if any of the other children were exhibiting this behavior?

 

My son does this too. Like the rest of his behaviors, it seems to cycle in and out. He also has described it as getting stuck.

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Parents,

 

I was speaking with doc T about this intense staring my dd10 has been doing since she was 5. She's had two EEGs since then to rule out absence seizures (both negative). She stares with that glazed-over look like she's internally preoccupied rather than actually looking at anything. I think it might be OCD related because the staring has subsided in the past with SSRIs (which eventually would ultimately fail and result in behavioral activation). She can sometimes converse during these staring spells that look like daydreaming, but they can last for a few minutes.

 

I realize everyone can get into a comfortable stare now and then, but this is notably out of the norm in frequency and duration. So, we were curious if any of the other children were exhibiting this behavior?

 

My son does this too. Like the rest of his behaviors, it seems to cycle in and out. He also has described it as getting stuck.

Here is a recent review by Swedo's group that mentions staring type compulsions

 

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/P...df/JCI37563.pdf

 

I think neurologists need to be more aware of this condition as these children may be confused with children with absence seizures

 

Dr. T

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Our daughter often did this during her extreme onsets of OCD. I think many children with OCD do this, whatever the cause. Our daughter is very verbal about the bad thoughts in her head, so we know pretty specifically what is going on. I'll share that here - but keep in mind that this is only one example - a million things could be going on inside their brains. Usually, they are doing a mental compulsion that keep them from responding. Our daughter's bad thoughts were primarily around contamination, but in this case, I'll use her bad thought that "her mom would leave her" (yes, that one left me with a lot of guilt over how the heck she could think such a thing!).

 

The thought would come in her head "if I don't could to one hundred 4 times, then my mom will leave me" or " if I don't say "sorry God, I am not mad at my mom" then my mom will leave me. Say it 7 times". This felt 100% true to her. It was life or death so far as she was concerned. If interrupted, she might try to reply, while continuing the ritual. But if she did it wrong, she had to start over, so she started not answering me unless I yelled and then she would freak out. She said "what???" a lot, as she often was so immersed that she could not keep track of what I was asking.

 

This sort of "staring" could also be from a thought such as "I need to start at that before something bad happens" or "I need to stare at that because it looks wrong". Whatever the reason, it is hard to interrupt the ritual, as it feels like the end of the world to them.

 

Before we understood OCD, it looked like she was either being deliberately defiant by not responding, or as if she were daydreaming. But she almost always went pale and seemed really fragile, so pretty quickly, we were questioning what this was all about. We even had her hearing checked.

 

I would think this is the sort of symptom that could have a lot of causes, so I am glad you are also checking out the seizure side of things!

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My son used to have staring episodes that could last several minutes at a time. He would be completely unresponsive and after he would come out of it, he was unable to explain what was going on during these episodes, which I called "trances". My son's OCD was triggered three years ago by a strep, but we never saw these zoning out episodes until shortly after he had vaccines, which was several months after the strep. There were many other unusual and bizarre symptoms after the vaccines, but these staring spells were the most disturbing. After a seizure disorder was ruled out, I began to believe the trances were OCD related, but I was never able to fully understand what was going on while they were happening. Over time these episodes eventually became shorter in duration and it has now reached a point where I might just see a blank stare for a few seconds or he will zone out when I ask him a question and ask me to repeat it. But since I increased his Zithromax to 500 mg a day a few months ago, many symptoms have improved and these short moments of unresponsiveness seem to happen less often.

 

Ellen

 

Parents,

 

I was speaking with doc T about this intense staring my dd10 has been doing since she was 5. She's had two EEGs since then to rule out absence seizures (both negative). She stares with that glazed-over look like she's internally preoccupied rather than actually looking at anything. I think it might be OCD related because the staring has subsided in the past with SSRIs (which eventually would ultimately fail and result in behavioral activation). She can sometimes converse during these staring spells that look like daydreaming, but they can last for a few minutes.

 

I realize everyone can get into a comfortable stare now and then, but this is notably out of the norm in frequency and duration. So, we were curious if any of the other children were exhibiting this behavior?

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Michael, I am curious to know if you can recall what would be going on when you would have these staring spells? Do you think they were OCD related, and do you know why they don't happen as often now?

 

Ellen

 

I used to do that quite a lot, not so much recently, I don't think. It can make a person very uncomfortable as they think I'm staring at them.

 

Michael

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