Thursday, May 26, 2005

NPR : Beating Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder

When I heard this story, NPR : Beating Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder about a 13 year old boy with OCD, I listened carefully to see if Adam was showing any signs of it. The poor boy in the commentary had to "balance" everything, talking forwards then backwards and touching things with both his right and left sides. He had lots of behavioral therapy, but it still seemed so painful to live with. Adam is no where near this degree, but a few nights later, he was overtired and had a complete meltdown over his burpie (the little cloth diaper that he puts on his pillow) not being flat and square enough. I kept folding and refolding, flattening and tucking the edges in. It was never right and I couldn't reason with him. I kept pleading with him that it was OK even though it wasn't perfect, but that just made him scream and wail. Finally, Doug went up and managed to fold it correctly. I was obsessed with not having Adam be so obsessive! He's been fine since, but I'll keep an eye on it and try to let him be when he is overtired.

1 comment :

Angela said...

Oh yeah, and a friend told me that kids who develop OCD tend to have a lot of strep throat, so I will be vigilant about that. Adam catches everything in sight, pneumonia, bronchitis, etc., but not strep yet.