Guest guest Posted January 21, 2008 Report Share Posted January 21, 2008 We are in a really bad place with our ds (12 - OCD,GAD, depression) right now. Lots of panic attacks at school, spending hours at a time moaning with his face buried in his hands and some severe, agressive rages that are scaring the pants off of him. When this isn't going on, he behaves like a normal, happy 12 yr old boy. He's barely been in school the past week. The pdoc took him off his prozac and risperdal immediately last Tues. We have an appt tomorrow a.m. After a lot of analyzing, we have noticed that most of his problems seem to surround his fear of running out of time. This is like being scared of the weather - nothing you can possibly control. He's scared he won't have enough time to study, or enough time to get ready, or enough time to play etc. This happens even on a Saturday when it's noon and the whole day is ahead. Then he spends 4 hours crying with his head in his hands, and it becomes a self fufilling prophecy. he is seeing a therapist who is using CBT, but not ERP (even though she swore she knew how to do this and had experience with it). Has anyone out there had a child with this fear of time? Any suggestions on how to do ERP with it? There are times when all he has to do is just look at a clock and he'll completely fal apart. Do I take all the clocks out of the house? I never realized how much our world is controlled by time (bed time, time for school, dinner time, time for hockey practice etc) until I started trying to think of ways to make this easier for him! Thanks to all who post their suggestions and problems. This is the only place in the world I can go to feel like I am not alone with this. - in MI **************Start the year off right. Easy ways to stay in shape. http://body.aol.com/fitness/winter-exercise?NCID=aolcmp00300000002489 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted January 21, 2008 Report Share Posted January 21, 2008 hi , Is there something he loves to do which he can become very absorbed in, so that he is not so carefully marking the passage of time? Then if some time goes by without watching the clock, and he is doing something not in the schedule, he will be " messing up " the ocd- but see that it is not terrible? We had this with my daughter some time ago she literally existed according to the kitchen timer and panicked that a disruption would extend indefinitely, which caused paralysis in a way (self-fullfilling like you said). I started doing recipes with her as a distraction, but since she loved baking, that became the activity she engaged in to mess up the schedule, and absorbing enough to get her mind off the ocd. She also justified it (being very panicky about completing all her work) as doing math b/c we would measure to increase/decrease recipes. Maybe the med discontinuation will help somehow, I hope so. Good luck... nancy grace > > We are in a really bad place with our ds (12 - OCD,GAD, depression) right > now. Lots of panic attacks at school, spending hours at a time moaning with his > face buried in his hands and some severe, agressive rages that are scaring the > pants off of him. When this isn't going on, he behaves like a normal, happy > 12 yr old boy. He's barely been in school the past week. The pdoc took him off > his prozac and risperdal immediately last Tues. We have an appt tomorrow > a.m. > > After a lot of analyzing, we have noticed that most of his problems seem to > surround his fear of running out of time. This is like being scared of the > weather - nothing you can possibly control. He's scared he won't have enough > time to study, or enough time to get ready, or enough time to play etc. This > happens even on a Saturday when it's noon and the whole day is ahead. Then he > spends 4 hours crying with his head in his hands, and it becomes a self > fufilling prophecy. > > he is seeing a therapist who is using CBT, but not ERP (even though she swore > she knew how to do this and had experience with it). Has anyone out there > had a child with this fear of time? Any suggestions on how to do ERP with it? > There are times when all he has to do is just look at a clock and he'll > completely fal apart. Do I take all the clocks out of the house? I never realized > how much our world is controlled by time (bed time, time for school, dinner > time, time for hockey practice etc) until I started trying to think of ways to > make this easier for him! > > Thanks to all who post their suggestions and problems. This is the only > place in the world I can go to feel like I am not alone with this. > > - in MI > > > > > > > **************Start the year off right. Easy ways to stay in shape. > http://body.aol.com/fitness/winter-exercise? NCID=aolcmp00300000002489 > > > Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted January 21, 2008 Report Share Posted January 21, 2008 How would he do with a schedule? And rule being he doesn't have to finish task within the schedule, just that he is to stop and move on to next thing (even down time, playing, TV, bath); is he allowed to turn in work late at school? If not, it might ease his mind if he can turn in this week's work by following Monday, something like that. Maybe have math done each night or something but ease up on the rest. Give him only an hour or two for work, what's not finished isn't finished, etc. At one time I limited 's work to 2 hours, if we weren't done, we weren't done. But he did have in his 504 Plan we could turn in work late. In the mornings you may, right now, have to stand over him, hand him his clothes to put on, walk him to brush teeth, etc. Dunno if timers might help, it does help some kids (set for 5 or 10 minutes for different tasks). Weekends you could try " clock free " - I quit wearing a watch years ago but of course I still have to get up, be at work at 8, leave at 4, etc. But it is nice not to think about " time " on weekends. Just some very quick thoughts, > > We are in a really bad place with our ds (12 - OCD,GAD, depression) right > now. Lots of panic attacks at school, spending hours at a time moaning with his > face buried in his hands and some severe, agressive rages that are scaring the > pants off of him. When this isn't going on, he behaves like a normal, happy Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted January 21, 2008 Report Share Posted January 21, 2008 How would he do with a schedule? And rule being he doesn't have to finish task within the schedule, just that he is to stop and move on to next thing (even down time, playing, TV, bath); is he allowed to turn in work late at school? If not, it might ease his mind if he can turn in this week's work by following Monday, something like that. Maybe have math done each night or something but ease up on the rest. Give him only an hour or two for work, what's not finished isn't finished, etc. At one time I limited 's work to 2 hours, if we weren't done, we weren't done. But he did have in his 504 Plan we could turn in work late. In the mornings you may, right now, have to stand over him, hand him his clothes to put on, walk him to brush teeth, etc. Dunno if timers might help, it does help some kids (set for 5 or 10 minutes for different tasks). Weekends you could try " clock free " - I quit wearing a watch years ago but of course I still have to get up, be at work at 8, leave at 4, etc. But it is nice not to think about " time " on weekends. Just some very quick thoughts, > > We are in a really bad place with our ds (12 - OCD,GAD, depression) right > now. Lots of panic attacks at school, spending hours at a time moaning with his > face buried in his hands and some severe, agressive rages that are scaring the > pants off of him. When this isn't going on, he behaves like a normal, happy Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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