OCD Outbursts

[Guest guest]

Hi everyone:

I am new to this group (as of today). I have a ten year old son who was

diagnosed with OCD a year and a half ago. He has been in CBT therapy since that

time. During the summer he goes about once a month and during the school year

we increase the sessions to every other week.

His OCD manifests itself in tactile ways and intrusive thoughts. He has to

touch his hands a certain way a specific number of times, or tap his elbows on a

car door, or click his teeth or blink his eyes (the list goes on) until he " gets

it right, " otherwise he feels something awful will happen.

While the CBT has done a wonderful job helping him with many of compulsions (we

seldom see these anymore), we still find that when he gets frustrated he has

outbursts that can last for hours . Last night he had one such outburst. He

cried for two hours, kicked a hole in the ceiling above his bed (he has a bunk

bed) and tried to hurt himself by smacking his head against the kitchen door. I

was able to stop him from doing this before he hurt himself, but it was terribly

upsetting to see him so unhappy and feel powerless to do anything about it.

When he finished the outburst, he felt horrible about his behavior and wanted to

" start over, " and " turn back time " . He wanted me to pretend it had not

happened, but I certainly cannot do that -- especially since he tried to hurt

himself.

He was fine today -- his happy self -- but I plan to talk to his therapist

anyway to see what we can do to help him to keep him from hurting himself.

My question is, has anyone deal with these kinds of outbursts before? Does your

OCD child also turn his/her frustration on himself or herself?

I love him sand worry so much for him. I just want him to have a happy life.

Thank you for listening.