Trying to understand the anxiety element of OCD
Question:
Sometimes strong interest in specific items and topics is a sign of high intelligence. Many smart children are said to learn all they can about a certain item. They will seemingly obssess over it, when in actuality, they are learning with thoroughness. At 9 months my son became obssessed with cars. Through this obsession–and we called it that, he learned colors by 1 yr, identified cars solely by their black and white photos in car magazines by 3. He transferred this skill to ID all cars, trucks, etc. from great distances. By 5 years old he moved on to nature and birds and by 7 he can ID all N Amer. species. He has collections of cars, magnifying glasses and tape measures. There is also a security in this knowledge for him.
Response:
I had posted this on t he Tourette group and was wondering if anyone could add anything to my questions re: if you can only be diagnosed with OCD if there is anxiety involved….and what if it isn’t always apparent that it isn’t related to anxiety would it just be called a tic then? Leslie wrote:
: :I Diagnostic criteria for 300.3 Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder : :A. Either obsessions or compulsions: : :Obsessions as defined by (1), (2), (3), and (4): 
1) recurrent and persistent thoughts, impulses, or images that are :experienced, at some time during the disturbance, as intrusive and :inappropriate and that cause marked anxiety or distress…. : :What if the child (8 years) says he actually likes doing the repeated :actions and it does not seem to cause anxiety or distress? List making, :going in and out of doors and locking them, etc. He has always had "motor :plannning" difficulties in past and never knew what to do with himself so :we always had to get him started on activities. Now he is older he will say :he is bored and will go into a reptitive mode. Could he be using these :actions to dispel anxiety but say he is enjoying them? : :Susan/hyper-grrrl Great questions. Wish I had great answers <grumble, mutter>. As far as I can see, technically, he shouldn’t be diagnosed as OCD if he’s not experiencing anxiety or distress. BUT: WOULD he experience anxiety/distress if he was unable to engage in those behaviors? If his behaviors are related to (classic-type) obsessive irrational fears/anxieties, then we might expect to see that it’s more than just "he likes to" but that "he feels driven to or feels that he HAS TO." And that’s OCD type stuff. D2 Yes, sometimes it would cause anxiety/distress if he couldn’t engage in those behaviors but not all the time. Sometimes I can talk him out of it for a while and redirect….it seems to wax and wane in severity. There have been days if I interrrupt his compulsion he will have a major tantrum. If he is away from it for awhile he will talk about it for hours until he gets back into it.(one time it was asking me every 2 minutes if we had enough gas in the car). He has told me recently "I don’t know why I keep thinking about it."…so….but if I ask him when he’s "doing it" he says he likes it and he doesn’t feel anxious…but then again he’s only 8 years… I don’t know what to think. He has been like that since he was little though. At age 3 he was obsessed by the heating pipes that came out of the roofs of houses…he would say "pipe".."pipe"…every time he saw one…then it was stop signs…he would have to "touch one" every time we saw one or walked by one or he would have a tantrum….then it was spray bottles of every shape, size and color…he had quite the collection!..the list goes on….seems he gets into one thing at a time and it lasts for 3 -4 months and then onto something else…I wonder if the fear is more of a cognitive thing that developes as one grows older? Susan/hyper-grrl
Response:
- Hide quoted text — Show quoted text -Hyper-grrrl wrote: > I had posted this on t he Tourette group and was wondering if anyone could > add anything to my questions re: if you can only be diagnosed with OCD if > there is anxiety involved….and what if it isn’t always apparent that it > isn’t related to anxiety would it just be called a tic then? > Leslie wrote: > : > :I Diagnostic criteria for 300.3 Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder > : > :A. Either obsessions or compulsions: > : > :Obsessions as defined by (1), (2), (3), and (4): > 1) recurrent and persistent thoughts, impulses, or images that are > :experienced, at some time during the disturbance, as intrusive and > :inappropriate and that cause marked anxiety or distress…. > : > :What if the child (8 years) says he actually likes doing the repeated > :actions and it does not seem to cause anxiety or distress? List making, > :going in and out of doors and locking them, etc. He has always had "motor > :plannning" difficulties in past and never knew what to do with himself so > :we always had to get him started on activities. Now he is older he will say > :he is bored and will go into a reptitive mode. Could he be using these > :actions to dispel anxiety but say he is enjoying them? > : > :Susan/hyper-grrrl
It seems to me you are confusing the obsessions and compulsions. The Diagnosis of OCD as correctly noted above is baised on either obsessions or compulsions or both. The behavior you describe sounds like a compulsion. Compulsions are thought to reduce anxiety or distress. Thus in some people if they can engage in their compulsions they may experience very little anxiety. As far as tics go this doesnt sound like a tic which would be movement like blinking or jerking or making a sound. Locking doors is a much more purposeful action that is more likely to be a compulsion. In children there is often difficulty in getting them to describe things in the way we talk about them as adults so the criteria re anxiety for example may need to be streched. Jim Claiborn PhD ABDD If the rich could pay other people to die for them the poor could make a wonderful living. Yiddish proverb J-Claiborn-…@worldnet.att.net
