Does Our Son Have OCD, and Exhibiting the First Signs at the Age of Two?
23 Aug 2011 Leave a Comment
by Finally Growing Up in OCD, Parenting Tags: Anxiety, Attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, Behavior, Disorders, Health, Mental health, Obsessive–compulsive disorder, Support group
I got a call today from the teacher at our son’s day care.
She has some concerns about certain behaviors that he has exhibited.
She made a suggestion, that it might be a different condition, but I pulled up a checklist and found that he had only between 1 -3 of the criteria on the main list and the 5 subcategory lists for that condition.
Her comment begs a question however. In my family, there is a strong genetic line of OCD. The chances of my son having OCD, which can mimic the disorder that the day care teacher was discussing, as well as many other disorders, is extremely possible.
Now, my son is young, he is only two years old, so many of the things he does, fall into the category of perfectly normal two-year-old behavior.
However, I have noticed a well, certain seemingly unmistakable behaviors that fit the OCD DSM IV official criteria list to a tee.
My parents tell me that by two years old, it was clear there was something “different” about me, that I possessed a disorder, or disorders of some kind.
I was taken to a child psychologist (at what age I cannot recall), and was diagnosed with OCD and ADHD.
We will try to save up some money to take our son to a child psychologist, who is a friend of ours, and superb at what she does. She is also intimately familiar with both my wife and my pasts, conditions, etc, so she can spend the hour observing him as opposed to observing or obtaining background histories on us.
So, does he have OCD? Is it too soon to tell? We shall have to see.
The good news is, that because I have been able in large part to completely do away with my OCD, I am intimately familiar and well versed in many ways of treating the condition, and would be able to help me son (who if he does have OCD, has a mild case) learn to work around some of the issues that the disorder presents.
So, Be”H it is nothing, just a normal two-year old with certain concrete preferences (as he is VERY bright BY”H) and he will grow up, and proceed normally into each stage of his cognitive and social development.
I’ll keep you posted!
Thanks,
Mordechai
