Anything to do for confessins of intrusive thoughts?

[lmkmip67]

Ian (8) has been really struggling with inappropriate and intrusive thoughts (many of a physical nature as far as kissing, parts of the body, etc). He has others too such as what color people ( they have been learning about slavery in school). The fact is he seems to attach to all kinds of things, these are just the things lately. He feels the need to constantly confess his thoughts. We are in therapy, but all the therapist tells him to do is to talk back to the OCD, tell it to go away, etc. But I think the thoughts come so fast and furious he isn't really able to do that at 8. Does anyone know of any techniques that are helpful with this type of thing? He is young, but not too young. He is clearly upset by these things, and feels the need to tell us all the time. I am at a loss. I am going to try to dose around the clock with Motrin and Aleve for a week or so. That is all I can think to do. Unless are there any natural supplements that are helpful? He is starting on Prozac tomorrow actually, but that takes a while to kick in. I just need some ideas on how to help him.....

[bulldog24]

my son has this he is 6. I also have ocd so I can relate,

 

My sons therapist made a box. Its called the worry box. If these intrusive thoughts make him worried we write it on paper and put it in the box which traps them in there so he cant be worried about them.

 

also not sure what you say when he confesses things, but I just say ok, no big deal, I do tell him he can tell his brain to knock it off. the worse thing you can do is tell him to stop or that its wrong to do or not to worry about it. It will make it worse,

 

distraction is huge.

 

My experience so far is that you need to treat the pandas which is the cause. not just the symptoms with meds.

 

I am relatively new to pandas but I thought I could relate since my son does the same stuff. I know If I were doing all the pandas tx and it was so distressing I would consider the prozac too.

 

I just am not sure if your kiddo is on abx and the hx so forgive me for assuming,

[lmkmip67]

Yep, he is on antibiotics and has done 6 IVIGs, so we are aggressively treating it. We are trying the prozac in a low dose to help with the OCD while we figure out all the pieces of our puzzle. I like the worry box idea. What i mean by he confesses is he will confess his thoughts because he feels they are wrong. He seems obsessed with kissing lately. He is an 8 year old boy so does not love girls. He things all that stuff is still icky. But he seems to obsess about kissing thoughts, for instance. He thinks it is wrong, so he tells me about it over and over and over, in an odd fast talking, mumbling way, almost. HE confesses other things too like a friend at school fell on his arm while they played soccer at recess. Ian ended up piling on top of him trying to get the ball. He felt all day that the sore arm of his friend might be his fault (it wasn't and the friend was fine). But he had to confess that he wasn't sure if it was his fault, he didn't think so, but maybe, etc...on and on.

[LNN]

You know how you're supposed to "name" the OCD? My DD names each type of anxiety as a different sort of fairy. She has the "sad for no reason fairy", the "what if" fairy, the "nobody loves me" fairy...When a fairy shows up, we tell the fairy to give us evidence.

 

"Ok "nobody loves me" fairy, today mom snuggled with me, gave me a hug when I skinned my knee, made a craft with me and read a book with me. That's evidence she loves me. What's your evidence that she doesn't? (silence). "See fairy. You got nuthin. You're a big fat liar who just wants my attention. We've had this discussion before, fairy. And there's no reason to waste any more time letting you have your way and giving you my energy. So go away. I have better things to do". For the "what if" fairy, I tell her there's no winning an argument with this fairy and I'm not going to get sucked into some game. I have better things to do and so does my DD. Then I walk away from it.

 

For confessions, your DS could "catch" his "fairy" and tell him "no, I'm not going to give you my energy and attention. You have no evidence that my friend was hurt. He didn't go to the nurse, didn't cry, didn't need a sling...You're just trying to take me away from the things I love and I'm not going to give you your way." Or, if he absolutely must confess, you tell him he's allowed 15 minutes when he gets home from school. He can write down all his confessions and put it into a box. Then after that, any time he feels the need to confess, you tell him he must hold it until tomorrow when he can write again. Over time, they of course can't remember all the things they needed to confess and supposedly the list gets shorter and the need less intense. Read John March's "Talking Back To OCD" - it has some excellent examples on this topic.

 

Tryptophan has helped my DD a lot. But I wouldn't add that if you're going to add an SSRI. FWIW - when my son (9) went thru a bad spell last year, he too was becoming aware of sex and it factored into his behaviors. But it also effected his friends' behaviors and they don't have OCD. So some of it is "just" part of growing up, only greatly exaggerated by OCD.

[lmkmip67]

Thanks, LLM. That helps a lot. Yes, he has named the OCD "Dumbo." I will check into that book. We have a couple, but not that one. He seems to attach onto whatever he is learning about at the time, so while I know some of it is normal, he does obsess about it more than his friends. It really is bothering him a lot, to the point of crying it is driving him so nuts. So I hoped to find some things to help him gain some control. Our therapist doesn't seem all that useful, frankly.

[Mayzoo]

Wanted to make sure you are not dosing the aleve and ibuprofen together. They compete for the same receptor sites and only one will work anyway, but they both can upset the stomach...especially together.

 

Sorry no real help for the confessing problem, but sounds like some great advice already.

[lmkmip67]

nope, not at the same time. I give the Aleve over night, then Motrin during the day.