distinguishing OCD and normal thoughts

[Guest guest]

Hello, My son is now 7. He started showing symptoms of OCD around the age of 4.

For the most part, he is definitely able to tell the difference between an OCD

thought and a " normal " thought. With my son's OCD he mainly has obsessions. He

will obsess about a certain idea for a period of time, and then his obsession

will change to something else. Sometimes when the obsessive thought changes, he

does not recognize that at first, but after I point it out to be an OCD thought,

he is able to recognize that the rest of the time. Starting around the age of 4

when he would have an OCD thought I would tell him, " that is the worry bug

talking, tell him to go away! " Now when he has a thought like that, he tells

the worry bug to go away himself. When he was younger I tried to teach him how

to recognize an OCD thought...like for him...his OCD thoughts are always scary,

they are never true, they are a thought that will make him nervous, and the

thoughts are not rational. I think with a lot of practice a child that age, or

younger can definitely recognize an OCD thought. Good luck!

[Guest guest]

There are a subgroup of people with OCD who have " overvalued ideation " and they

truly can't distinguish between what is and what isn't OCD thinking. For those

people, medication can be a great help.

distinguishing OCD and " normal " thoughts

Hello, My son is now 7. He started showing symptoms of OCD around the age of 4.

For the most part, he is definitely able to tell the difference between an OCD

thought and a " normal " thought. With my son's OCD he mainly has obsessions. He

will obsess about a certain idea for a period of time, and then his obsession

will change to something else. Sometimes when the obsessive thought changes, he

does not recognize that at first, but after I point it out to be an OCD thought,

he is able to recognize that the rest of the time. Starting around the age of 4

when he would have an OCD thought I would tell him, " that is the worry bug

talking, tell him to go away! " Now when he has a thought like that, he tells

the worry bug to go away himself. When he was younger I tried to teach him how

to recognize an OCD thought...like for him...his OCD thoughts are always scary,

they are never true, they are a thought that will make him nervous, and the

thoughts are not rational. I think

with a lot of practice a child that age, or younger can definitely recognize

an OCD thought. Good luck!