really worried about DS2.

[MedusaIsHavingaBadHairday]

DS2 is 16
he has autism/aspergers and some learning difficulties. and has high levels of anxiety and some OCD tendencies ( has to touch things x number of times etc). Needless to say he gets obsessed with things (like X factor contestants) easily and they dominate his thoughts.

Tonight he was shaking and obviously very distressed when he told me, or tried to tell me that he is scared of his own thoughts.. that in his head some of his thoughts are bad. He is scared he is like jimmy Saville (!!) because he gets lots of obsessive thoughts and sometimes it's horrible thoughts about his friends (mostly teen boys hence I guess the Jimmy Saville link)

Now.. I do think he is probably gay..not an issue, and is probably becoming suddenly sexually aware, without having the understanding that all teen boys think about sex constantly and that having sexual thoughts about his friends is normal, and I tried to reassure him of that. But he is terrified of his own thoughts and head as he thinks he is bad. For DS2 being good is extremely important.. he has never been naughty he is terrified of people being bad and is absolutely beside himself that he is having bad thoughts that say things to him.

Now I have NO concerns whatsoever that he will attempt any inapproriate behaviour towards anyone..none at all. But I am concerned that his bad thoughts are appearing as a voice in his head. I had noticed that recently he has been muttering to himself a LOT ..kind of assumed it was just a Ds2 thing.. but actually with his extreme anxiety tonight I think it is potentially the tip of a large mental health iceberg.

I told him I was VERY proud of him for telling me.. he found it extremely hard to articulate his anxiety and I don't think he was able to explain himself fully, but enough to ring alarm bells.

Luckily we saw the Paed a few weeks ago (on the day it all kicked off at college) and she was very concerned at the level of anxiety she could see, and sent me the referral forms for CAMHS. I asked DS2 tonight if he would like to talk to someone there and he said yes.. whcih in itself is an indication of how scared he is. Meds have been suggested for anxiety before but I think now we defo need to pursue this.

We have a fair few family members who have pretty bad mental health problems (as in hospitalised).

I will do the forms tomorrow, but if you were me would you ring the paed/secretary and speak to them and see if we can push things thro faster? I have reaassured Ds2 as best I can, but actually I am really worried about him. Not that he will do something dreadful, but that potentially he could be experience schizophrenic episodes.. he is bang on the right age.

Medusa, am not an expert, but have a son with cerebral palsy who also developed OCD issues as a teenager. At times when he was very stressed, and therefore the OCD was at it worst, talking to himself was a key sign. From the reading I;ve done on OCD, intrusive thougths of inappropriate sexual behaviour are extremely common, and often are not related to what might, realistically, happen. On that basis, I'd say it is possible your son is experiencing a more extreme type of OCD but is very unlikely to be having a schizophrenic episode. You could try looking at the Young Minds website (they also have a very good helpline) or just some of the OCD sites, but my gut feeling is that your son's behaviour is more in that category. Obviously it's still distressing for him, but I'm worried about you thinking he is about to go right over the edge. CAMHS referral sound excellent idea, and OCD (if that is what it is) can respond well to CBT. My son did a bit of a CBT course and does use some of the techniques and certainly his OCD behaviours have lessened significantly (not gone away completely) and he is much happier.

Hope appt does come through soon, though.

Medusa, there was a program last week about the hospital that used to be 'bedlam' and one of the people they were following was a young man with intrusive thoughts just as you describe. It was part of his anxiety and treated as such, he had many other issues that he was anxious about and thy appeared to be treated toggether with a CBT type approach. I'll see If I can find the link and post it.

I know it's only a TV program but your post was so similar that I felt it might be helpful. I would def ring the paed If youv've not already done so. Good luck

I can't link as on my phone but it was called 'bedlam' on Chanel 4 on Thursday, continues this week. There is a thread on telly addicts about it too.