Lights Obsession and Excessive Sneezing

[jstone]

Hello all.

 

Part I: Our 4 year old son has strep flare ups (we suspect) that cause certain intense obsessions. One main obsession is going around the house and turning on all of the lights. Have any of you experienced the same obsession.

 

Part II: Also, our son Sneezes a lot throughout the day. It’s the first sound we hear in the morning when he wakes up and he has approximately 20 subsequent sneezing fits throughout the day. Also, the sneezing seems particularly prompted by bright lights, but lights don’t appear to be the singular cause. Have any of you experienced this excessive sneezing?

 

Thanks!

[colleenrn]

Has he been diagnosed with PANDAS?

Colleen

[jstone]

Has he been diagnosed with PANDAS?

Colleen

 

 

Yes, our Dan! suspects PANDAS. I am working to get in to see Dr. K to get his expert diagnosis.

[bronxmom2]

The thing with the lights sounds like it's based in anxiety and the excessive fearfulness/ separation anxiety many of us see.

[MomWithOCDSon]

There is a condition in which light . . . especially sunlight . . . induces a sneezing reflex. It's called "photic sneezing," I think.

 

That being said, I was going to come home from a therapy appointment with my DS13 this afternoon and post a new topic on sneezing . . . not a tic, but a genuine "juicy" sneeze . . . and its relationship to PANDAS or an auto-immune condition, in general. Talk about synchronicity! Here's our sneezing scenario.

 

Firstly, yes, DS has seasonal allergies, and our pollen counts are really high right now. But we've been treating him, both with prescription and OTC drugs, as well as supplements like quercitin, and he's been faring well for the last several weeks. But earlier this week he had an "episode" (DH was with him, though, and I didn't see it), and it was repeated today, and it was truly bizarre!

 

While in the office with the ERP therapist, after having been alone together for a bit, the therapist called DH and I in to "wrap up" the session. When he began to summarize one particular therapy goal that DS finds distressing, he started to melt down. All the usual physical behaviors: trying to curl up in a fetal position in the chair, pulling his long hair over his face, and curling and extending his fingers over and over again, all while muttering in a repetitive fashion (this is somewhat new), "I'm stressed, I'm stressed, I'm stressed." The therapist, DH and I coached him through the meltdown, and it was over in less than 5 minutes, despite the fact that it got pretty intense. He pulled it together and walked out of the therapist's office with us, got on the elevator, and we walked to the car.

 

Once in the car, he'd calmed down sufficiently to begin to talk about why he'd reacted the way he did, what triggered the stress and kept it running, etc. We talked about how he was like a hamster that couldn't get off its wheel when he's like that. And then the sneezing began.

 

He must've sneezed 30 times in less than 15 minutes; it was unreal. And these were genuine, snot-producing, shake-the-whole body sneezes. He also noted that his ears felt clogged and his throat was scratchy. It was as though he was having an allergic reaction to something, but he hadn't been exposed to anything except STRESS/ANXIETY! It was though he was mildly allergic to peanuts, and we'd given him a handful. Apparently, he had this same sneezing reaction after a meltdown in front of DH a few days previous, but though they'd told me about the meltdown, nobody thought to mention the sneezing attack until it happened again today.

 

Does anybody know what the physiological process could be behind this reaction? When's he's anxious, is the "flight or flight" causing his body to release something that's inducing an allergy-like immune response?