Intrusive thoughts

[colleendonny]

DD5 is currently in a flair and she is being haunted by thoughts that no 5 year old should have. She is confessing all of these thoughts to me. She is also currently having some sensory issues and thinking that she is doing things that she is not doing.

 

What am I supposed to say to these things? Her therapist is telling me to tell her to think of other things, which only slightly works for a small period of time.

 

She has been on full strength Augmentin since December. And azithromycin from January until April. Then she started with this flair the first week of June and it been at its worst this past week. We added in Azithromycin starting Thursday. I have also used Advil on and off.

 

So, of this is a symptom that your child has, do you have any ideas for me? In regards as to what to say to her? Or any way to lessen these thoughts? I just feel terrible that her mind is racing like this.

[smartyjones]

i'm in the middle of packing to move so my brain is not so on now but. . . have you tried the approach of working with her to beat up or destroy the thoughts. we had better success with that than trying to get ds to think of something else. we'd make up scenarios where he'd destroy the thought. it seemed to give him more of a sense of power over them than thinking of something else which seems a bit too much like avoidance.

 

ds likes baseball so it was something like imagining pitching a ball at the it and blowing it out into the outfield. i think we may have done shooting down with water guns. . . ??? i think we did something like yelling at the thoughts like 'leave me alone!!' something like that. . . it's still tough but seemed better than just trying to have better thoughts.

[junkyardjean]

I have used puppets with some success - dd4 "assigns" thoughts to each puppet and uses them to talk/act the thoughts. I have a "caretaker" puppet that talks to her puppet about how to make it better. For example - she perseverated on something in her closet when she was in her last flare. She used a puppet to pretend to be what she thought was in there, then my puppet did goofy things to make it go away. I found some success as it is a way to engage her in play during times when she has such a hard time doing that, and it can also help her verbalize some of the details that she can struggle with due to her age (and therefore helps me fill in the medical people). I've noticed that it also helps to take it out of her head, which helps her relax a little.

 

That being said, and as you mentioned in your post, things that work often only work for a short period of time and then we are struggling to find something new to provide some relief...

[Kimiejoe]

We had DS write down words or pictures of what his thoughts were - on paper - and then throw them away to get rid of them. Helped a little but with distraction.

[smartyjones]

have you used 'what to do when you worry too much' and/or 'what to do when your brain gets stuck' by dawn huebner -- they're workbook style that are fabulous for kids.

[colleendonny]

Thanks for the tips everyone. We did try the Advil. To me, I didn't see much improvement with it...

Since starting the Azithromycin on top of the Augmentin on Thursday, just yesterday, 5 days later, we are definitely seeing much more improvements. It did seem to get worse before it got better though. Today, she didn't mention any of the intrusive thoughts, and just had a few minor confessions.

 

At Dr. B's office on Wednesday, we did draw some more blood. We did test for Lyme and Co through Igenex a while back. She has a few IND bands for Lyme. SHe is IgG posistive for ehrlichiosis and had exposure to RMSF and Typhus. RMSF and Typhus antibodies are no longer being seen. Ehrlichiosis titers have yet to go down.Mycoplasma and strep were negatives on all tests thus far, but we did retest for MycoP last week but I have yet to receive the results.

Nancy- I have not tested her for H.Pylori or the deficiencies. I will ask Dr. B to test for these at our follow- up appointment. Thanks for your advice.

 

We do have Up and Down the Worry Hill and What to do When Your Brain Gets Stuck. She does like to read these books when she flares.

 

We saw a new therapist who gave us some good tips. We are going to have her picture her thoughts as something. Maybe annts, and stomp on them. With distraction during a flare, the thoughts seems to lessen a lot. But is it so hard to constantly keep her occupied with an almost 3 yr old and a 1 year old. We have been going to the park a lot and playing outside. It has helped to keep her mind off things.

 

And the past few days at the playground, she has been so sociable and making friends so easily.

 

Again, thanks all for your tips. They certainly help us