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A bit of a breakthrough!


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Ds had a big step the other day in recognizing his OCD thinking! We have been reading and working on the "What To Do When Your Brain Gets Stuck" book this summer. Yesterday he was able to clearly identify how OCD was taking his thinking off the rails and talk himself down from it and get back on track very quickly. He seemed so visibly relieved and empowered by the whole thing. Hope it keeps going this way for him.

 

On another note, I also see I have lots of reading to catch up on here after being away for a couple weeks.

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This is very encouraging!!!  Maybe we'll try to go back to this book this weekend.  My ds is still stuck on "I will die/bad things will happen"  if "I don't do x just right" or mom doesn't say something exactly precisely at the right moment with the right tempo, etc.  We have to tap into the logic part of his brain but he just can't get there yet.  He can easily identify the "cause" of his discomfort as the OCD but can't see that "the OCD" is "wrong", if that makes any sense.  If anything, I felt that reading the first half of the book together earlier this summer helped him feel more permission to give in to the compulsions, knowing there were others out there like him, but we didn't get to the "fixing it" half of the book at that time.

Wapiti, I'm asking this in a really naive way, so hopefully I'm saying this ok or not giving offense.  Was there a point where things shifted with OCD symptoms in regard to his school work and they started coming out where they hadn't been there before?  Maybe connected to content level or the demands of the curriculum or something?  I don't know, just something it occurred to me to wonder.  I've met a boy who was diagnosed OCD, and his symptoms were certainly not limited to school work, oy.  I guess I'm just wondering if the sweet easiness and comfort we have with school now will continue or if that potential is there and a particular methodology or level of material or whatever could bring it out?

 

We (I) 've worked so hard to this point to keep things in easy little steps that he has NO CLUE what it's like to hit a wall he doesn't understand, can't handle, etc. I don't know what will happen when that happens.

 

(not meaning any implications about your teaching!)

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Jennifer, how old is your ds and can you describe what sort of pace you worked through the book? How much at a time? I kinda want to sit down with the second half and get-it-done.

 

Eta, maybe we should go back and forth - first getting through the second half all the way to the end, for context for my VSL, so he can see where it goes, and then go back and work on specific sections one at a time. ??

Ds is nearly 10. We pretty much just did a chapter a night for the first part with me making as many connections to what we read the following day. When we got to the three tricks part I spent a few days helping point that out to him throughout our day. Now at the tool part it is probably more like about a week at a time with each one. I am going more on when it looks like he is internalizing the info and is starting to use it we move to adding the next one into his toolbox.

 

I think it would be a good idea to work on reading the whole thing for the big picture and then actually going piece by piece and working through it. For my ds that would have been too much at once, but I could see for other kids how it would be a better fit to do it that way.

 

I do sincerely hope he can find some relief from all of his heavy thoughts in short order.

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Wonderful news! That awareness will last him a lifetime.

 

Did your ds start his new school yet? I thought I remembered you saying you were changing things up this year. Would love to hear an update if he's started.

Thanks! He starts school after labour day. He is pretty excited about it. In fact, he just happily headed out to do some back to school shoe shopping with his dad.

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