My DD is 18 and told me last week she is having irrational thoughts- they mainly involve something happening to myself, DH or DS. She will not let us go anywhere without her or stay home alone. She wants to come everywhere with us and my DH is really struggling because we never get anytime on our own- she has a job but works almost the same hours as DH- when she is at work I can go out with DS but we don't mention it and she doesn't know.
She also worries about things that I think are very minor - ie a mosquito bite - she is going to die of malaria, the fridge buzzing is the carbon monoxide alarm and we are all going to die. She checks all doors are locked about 3 times before she goes to bed even though she has seen me lock them in front of her.
Tik tok and social media have a lot to answer for as she bases alot of her facts on scenarios she has seen on there.
At school she suffered with severe anxiety during exams and also for the first 6 months of her job it was really hard to get her up and into work because she felt so sick- doing new things and going on public transport used to freak her out too but now she is fine . All of the above was because she was on her own - if I was with her there would be no anxiety and ever since a little girl she has been very very clingy to me and she will always choose a day out with me rather than a friend and it can get quite stifling - I love her to bits but I thought by now her reliability on me would have started to wane.
Interestingly in my old diaries from when I was 17 I talk about how worried I was that I had a brain tumour and there are photcopies and symptoms which I have highlighted and reams and reams of paper that I have copied information from a photocopy of a medical book from the reference library. I had completely and totally forgotten about this but I was convinced I would die at 20. So quite similar but different scenario. My diaries are full of it about 5 pages a day for about a year of how I would be dead and wouldn't be able to have children etc. I have never suffered with any form of mental health and had completely forgotten about this until my mum was clearing their loft and gave me these diaries a month or so ago.
Does this sound like it could be OCD? Her room is actually a mess and she doesn't care about tidiness or anything like that but her deodorant has to face the right way and her curtains have to be a certain way. Or is it just teenage thing that may disappear over time, like mine did.