10 year old daughter with OCD - bad thoughts/worries

September 22, 2011

Hi Everyone,

I'm new to the group and learning a lot from reading your posts. My daughter,

Kate, is 10 and has been a social butterfly most of her life. She's normally

outgoing, friendly, confident and constantly with friends. A very happy girl.

We had a few stressful situations at home recently (a friend died in a car

accident & my oldest daughter moved away for college) which I think may have

triggered her OCD. I did consider PANDAS since it was all so sudden, but she

hasn't been ill with Strep or other viruses and does not have any symptoms of an

auto-immune disease.

My mom has OCD so I think genetically this may have been part of Kate - but it

wasn't until she was under major stress that it was triggered.

Anyway, her OCD is presenting as bad thoughts. She keeps thinking she's done

something to hurt someone (emotionally or physically) and states she thinks she

might like the idea of hurting someone - which completely freaked me out the

first time! I don't let on I'm surprised by it though.

It's not just the bad thoughts, but worries... strange worries. She will say

she wants a drink of water and start to get one herself, but they she will stop

and ask if the glass is clean, if the water is safe, etc. This extends to

multiple areas in her daily life. She's asking for constant reassurances on very

simple things.

Is anyone else dealing with something similar with their child? I'd love to

connect to share ideas.

Kate has had one meeting with a therapist and we are reading two books which

have proven to be helpful, What to Do When Your Brain Gets Stuck: A Kid's Guide

to Overcoming OCD and What to Do When You Worry Too Much: A Kid's Guide to

Overcoming Anxiety both by Dawn Huebner & Bonnie s. Any other suggested

books for children to read about OCD?

Thank you for reading through this. I'm looking forward to reading more about

your OCD experiences.

~Brigitte

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