help!

[karenm]

do all your children have ocds? my grandson does not have obvious ocd. he whistles all the time and did not before so we think that may be a tic. he has depression, seperation anxiety, rages from {****}, and so many other symtoms.

[blakes_mom]

My son does not have any ocd sx that we are aware of.Yes I think the whiste is a tic.I just saw a story about this on tv the other day about a young boy who whistles all the time and he was diagnosed with tourettes. It sounds like your grandson has all the signs of pandas/pans. I would find a pandas doctor to evaluate him.

[Dedee]

I only have a minute, but could write you a book on this one. Most likely your grandson does have OCD. OCD in children is very tricky. Most of the time we expect to see fears of germs, handwashing, etc as signs of OCD, but it is so much more in children. My son is a "typical" OCDer. My daughter....very different, more like what you describe in your grandson. But still OCD non-the-less. A rigid personality, very inflexible, raging at the drop of a hat, can't make simple decisions, seperation anxiety (usually an obsessive need to be with a parent)....these are all classic PANS and very much OCD symptoms. When we finally took my daughter in to be evaluated for PANS I was shocked at what the doctors said. They said she fit the "typical" child presentation of OCD. I never would have believed it. You really have to look very closely for the reasons behind the behavior before you can see the underlying OCD. All we tend to focus on is the behavior, but believe me.....OCD lurks behind it. The child does not have the ability to articulate how they are feeling when they are young, but with help they can identify it and learn to control it. Since my daughter has been doing CBT, I have learned so many things about how she thinks and different OCD thoughts she has that I never would have imagined. They learn to hide things at an early age because they sense that it isn't normal, that only increases their anxiety. My daughter had imaginary lines in the house that she couldn't cross, she had to go through doors a certain way, & count to herself. I never had any idea of these things until only a few months ago. Those are clearly OCD thoughts & behaviors, but she never talked about it or even identified it herself until she started CBT.

 

So, basically I just wanted to say that I think you do have a pretty classic sounding case of PANS. Certainly enough to seek professional consultation. I urge you to have your grandson's parents get him in with a PANS specialist as soon as possible. Best of luck to your family.

 

Dedee

[nicklemama]

I will echo Dedee, your grandson most likely has OCD as well. The rage is a dead giveaway. I didn't realize my DS had OCD either. OCD does not always present in typical fashion in children. After I read the book Freeing Your Child From OCD by Tamar Chansky, I had a long list of obsessions and compulsions I recognized in my son, who was a huge rager. In the beginning, he had no tics. It took 6 months of untreated PANDAS before the tics showed up. My DS had raging when an ocd was interrupted.

[fightingmom]

Strange, my son whistles all the time, too. And it drives me crazy, so I'm constantly asking him to stop whistling. I had no idea it could be a tic!

[Mayzoo]

My kiddo has not learned to whistle yet, but she made a whaling, hollering sound all the time and completely stopped talking for almost three months. Since she could not seem to control the hollering, I decided it must be a vocal tic.

 

Kids rage for a reason usually. We may never know what the reason was, but I suspect they are overwhelmed by something--thoughts, frustrations, sensory overload etc..... Whatever is bothering them is something they believe they cannot control and frequently cannot verbalize well so it builds and builds until we see the rage. JMO though

Edited March 24, 2012 by Mayzoo