Obsessions- what do you do?
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| Thu, 11-17-2005 - 8:53am |
At around 5 am this morning, I went into my son's room to check on him and apparently last night before he went to sleep he had laid out every piece of his clothing from the closet onto the floor of his room. At first, I thought it had all been just thrown around and then I realized that each piece had been laid out perfectly and then he had put a hanger on top of each piece of clothing. This really bothers me. His biggest issue right now is his OCD behaviors. He continuously lines up his toy cars and his foam letters. I let him do it because he is doing imaginary play at the same time so I figure it's not all bad. (And you'd be hard-pressed to find a 3 yr old who knows his letters better. ;) But he perseveres so much on it that I'm beginning to be uncomfortable with it.
Anyway, anybody else's child have these issues? What do you do? What professional advice have you gotten? I just don't know if I should let him do it or maybe try and hide the objects he obsesses over to see if will change his focus. What do you think?
-Alicia,
mom to Coleman, 3.5, PDD-NOS

Alicia,
Hi and welcome! My son is 6 1/2yrs old and HFA, and he has some OCD tendencies too. Basically, I don't let his obsessiveness bother me too much. Sometimes I will redirect his focus, if his obsessing lasts too long. His brother is also real good at doing that for him too.(getting him involved in something else to play with!) I also incorporate alot of flexibility around the house, this helps him not to get too worked up if things are not the way he wants!
I let him line up toothbrushes, his toys, the faucet, the light switches, etc. He also likes things "just so"!!! Very clean when it comes to certain things!!! But then dirty on other things! Go figure! lol But none of these things interfere in his daily life. I'm also able to tell him to stop, and he will usually, without much fuss. We've never had a real serious problem with this as of yet.
I'm not sure, but maybe some of the other mom's here have better advice to give! But so far we seem to be managing ok with all the obssessiveness.
HTH,
michelle
Writing not only as a mum of a mum of an autistic kid, but as someone who tends to get rather passionate/obsessional about new interests, I can give you only one word for removing one's passions: TORTURE.
If you take away my access to a current passion, I will actually obsess worse about it. Instead of indulging in it for an hour or two and then moving on, I will keep thinking and thinking about it. If the thing is gone long enough that I actually do get past it, I'll simply move onto another obsession/passion and the whole thing starts again.
In short, there's not a lot you can do.
I do tend to agree with you on that! Taking something away from my ds will only make him think about it more and in the end....he will always find something else to take it's place!!
michelle
I guess that I'm just scared that he's going to grow up to be the type of person that has to get in and out of the shower umpteen times and then open and close doors over and over before being able to do something. So far he's not like that at all but I'm concerned. I guess I will just have to wait and see. I just don't like "there's nothing you can do about it." That doesn't sit right with me. There's got to be something...
-Alicia
Alicia,
Jake (2) does this type of thing a lot. His big things are lining things up and driving his tractor (a toy ride on that he'll ride around and around for hours). We tried hiding the tractor from him for awhile (put it away after he went to sleep). He did ok with not asking for it (of course he was pretty nonverbal at the time), but he just started to obsess with other things. You could try redirecting him when it starts, but I haven't had much luck with that. Jake will start lining up his blocks, so I'll get him to play with his cars, and he'll just start lining them up. If I try interupting to engage him with me, he'll usually get very upset. So we just let him be and try to distract him with other things. Good luck, and I hope you find something that helps.
Jen
>>I just don't like "there's nothing you can do about it." That doesn't sit right with me. There's got to be something...<<
Well sure, there are always drugs. I am on antidepressants for depression issues, and I found that they greatly lessened my obsessional tendencies. But of course, I wouldn't be recommending drugs unless his life comes undone because of obsessions.
At this point in his life, his obsessions aren't causing him great problems - so try not to worry. It may never get worse. To quote my husband: "don't worry about stuff that may not happen". Trust me, I'm learning to follow this bit of wisdom and have found that the bad stuff generally doesn't happen :-)
Ok. I talked to a psychologist and she gave me some advice. She said that when Coleman leaves things out of order (meaning not lined up), I should praise him A LOT for it. Also, when he lets me play with those things that he may be obsessing over, praise him for it. Maybe it will make him more willing to leave things as they are or play with them differently. I hope so. I'm definitely willing to try.
Thanks for all the responses. This is definitely an interesting topic for me right now.
-Alicia