Intrusive thoughts - teenager

[ErictheGuineaPig]

My almost 14yo daughter has been having intrusive thoughts that started quite suddenly a few days ago.

She's always been such a happy, cheery, chilled out kid - and still is when she's not having the thoughts. She describes them as thoughts of hurting/murdering people and how awful it would be if she did anything like that. Which then makes her incredibly anxious and sick and upset.

She's a very gentle soul and these thoughts are very much her 'worst nightmare'. We've talked it through and I'm trying to reassure her but I don't know what I should do really.

Should I seek some help for her either formally or private counselling? Or should I just continue reassuring her and assume they will pass as quickly as they came on?

Her younger brother has an appointment with camhs in the new year and it took 6 months of waiting to get it.

Why would this suddenly have started with her? She doesn't seem to have anything else going on and is generally quite an open book with us. I'm beginning to think it's me and I'm just a spectacularly shit parent :(

I think ocd does often start in the teenage years. From experience please don’t leave it and hope for the best. It invariable gets worse and is so distressing for them. And you. I wish I’d acting on my son’s when it first started then he might not be so bad now. I’m only just going through the journey so I’m not sure my advice would be too useful. Post this on the support thread below this one. Most of the parents have much more experience of the path to take but I think you need to go to your GP and insist on a referral.

There’s some really good info on intrusive thoughts on the internet. Basically (and I read up on this because I started getting intrusive thoughts fairly recently) intrusive thoughts are COMPLETELY normal. Everyone has them - the difference being that normally our brain would just “bat them away” and they’d be gone. For some reason some people start to focus on them and then they become intrusive. From what I’ve read I’ve started practising - when I get a thought - just to let it wash over me and say to myself - these are normal, these are normal. Mostly I find they them just go. I have been through a lot of stress in the past few years and have always struggled to maintain good mental health - so I’d just be aware of any stressors in your daughters life and minimise them if possible. Xx