Ds1 has always had a tendency towards some ocd-ish behaviours. He has obsessions about poisons getting on his hands and in his mouth and goes through periods of obsessive handwashing.
So far we've handled it by not making a big deal about it and unobtrusively directing him to washing his hands at appropriate times rather than every few minutes. He tends to be worse when he's stressed and the handwashing reduces to acceptable levels when the stress passes, although the underlying fear of poisoning/contamination remains and he can relapse into it at the slightest thing. (Yesterday it was because the football bounced off an old tree stump that he's convinced has poisonous funghi growing on it - he wouldn't even kick the ball after that, ran indoors to wash his hands with antibacterial handwash and refused to come back outside.)
He also has obsessive bedtime and morning routines, although as long as he's not stressed, he can cope with small changes to certain parts these if necessary eg when we're on holidays.
During past couple of weeks, when it was hot, we had all the windows open at home - hence lots of banging doors if not shut properly with the handle. We live in a semi, so obviously the dcs have had lots of reminders to shut the doors and make sure they are properly latched so that the banging doesn't disturb our neighbours.
Ds1 absolutely failed to do this effectively the whole time the windows were open, seemingly without noticing and we tried not to make a big deal of it, just getting up and closing them again ourselves quietly.
However, now it's cooler and we don't have all the windows open widely he has started closing the door several times, then doing a certain numbers of twists of the handles and pushes 'to make sure it's shut properly'. He only does it on two particular doors, the living room and his bedroom (both of which are the worst for banging when the windows are open). So, in effect, he is actively rattling the door each time he closes it.
I have been ignoring him doing this, hoping that he will realise the doors aren't banging and will stop doing, but it's being over a week now and he seems to be doing it more, if anything.
Should I carry on ignoring it, or is there some other way I should be handling this? I'm worried about making it worse by doing or saying the wrong thing and from past experience I know this sort of behaviour tends to grow and get more ingrained and obsessive.
Any advice would be gratefully received.
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Advice about how to handle early ocd-type behaviours
19 replies
moosemama · 02/08/2012 16:51
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