Reply To: Is there ocd lurking behind her anxiety?

[Ellen H]

That’s where I’m getting mixed signals from her. When she is hyper focused on her body, I can’t tell if it’s compulsions that’s driving her or not. She goes to the bathroom A LOT. Her hands get very raw from washing, but she doesn’t seem to have a fear of germs, just needs to wash after using the bathroom (obviously). If her throat is sore, she takes her temperature many times. She has to tell me each and every symptom such as if she felt sweaty for a little bit, or her toe was hurting or she has a bump or little bruise.  She likes to know where I’m at, but is satisfied with my answer and doesn’t usually ask more than once. I’ve wondered about separation anxiety for sure, but at the moment that seems ok. It’s strange because when  she’s feeling good, everything is good! She isn’t anxious or didn’t need to go to the bathroom often and is happy. But  when she’s in a moment where she isn’t feeling good, she might be sick, need to regulate her breathing,(she has an app on her watch she likes to use) she needs to know where I am, tell me about her intrusive thoughts, tell me about her worries, and apologize for not being super helpful or fighting with her brothers and ask about different symptoms (she’ll want reassurance after telling me about each symptom). It’s like she has everything at once, or nothing.

I watched your video about habit vs compulsions and I suppose it does seem like she has a lot of habits. She’s has low growth hormone  and is pretty small- so she is obsessed with weighing herself. We talk about it and it doesn’t upset her if she can’t weigh herself but if she’s in the bathroom then she does it (and reports her weight) she has to say good night twice, but she will stay at friends house and not even text. She likes most things to be just so, but I guess doesn’t melt down if they aren’t. She will ask a lot of questions but is usually satisfied with the answers she gets and doesn’t keep going back to the same thing. It guess it’s just that she seems to have some things she obsesses about or is particular about, but maybe not the compulsions .