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Fascinations

Babs1980

Hi, I have a 16 year old son who has fixations on history, mainly Hitler and war. The fascinations have taken over his life. He says he wants to get the thoughts out of his head. He is having counselling at the moment but he masks really well so he won’t disclose any of these thoughts to the councillor. 
He’s life has been taken over by these thoughts. I have tried to say to him that what he is saying is inappropriate. I don’t think I can post on here as I don’t want to cause offence.

im reaching out for any advice on how to get him a new interest as this one is so unhealthy and he is really struggling as are we as a family. Everyday is a debate or struggle and he can’t accept that we have different opinions. 

  • Maybe get him interested in something else by diverting his attention to something related e.g. the way that secret messages were sent by the Germans during the war and the work done by Bletchley park to decode those messages which not only shortened the war, but also lead to the invention of the first electronic computer.

    If he is good at maths the book by Gordon Welchman - The Hut Six Story - Breaking the Enigma Codes is interesting and is more to do with the maths/technical side of cracking the Enigma codes than a lot of other books on Bletchley park, if he is interested and wants to learn more about the maths side of it then "Mathematical Ciphers from Caesar to RSA" by Anne L. Young is a good starter book, beyond that is Abstract Algebra and Number theory leading to the modern ciphers used today for security on the internet.

    If he is non-technical then there are many books on Bletchley park that detail the work that was done and the messages that were decoded.

  • in reply to Lotus

    Hi, 

    Thank you for your reply. Yes my son is autistic and ADHD. 
    I have spoken to the councillor and we have also gone down the prevent route but he wasn’t showing any extremism activity online and I limit what he goes on. He also didn’t meet the criteria to be a concern, the police officer said it was neurodiverse and mental health. CAMHS won’t touch him as he doesn’t meet the threshold. I am just really concern and even when I say stop saying the things that he continues. He gets upset and says he can’t get them out of his head. The councillor said to tell him to stop but I’m not sure if this is the right thing to do. 
    Thank you for the link, I will have a look. 

  • Hi and welcome to the community. 

    I'm assuming that your son is autistic? I'm not sure how to deal with this as he's already receiving counselling, although as he's not disclosing to the counsellor, can you tell them and see if they can guide him to open up? 

    There is an article in the advice and guidance section of this website that may be of help:

    https://www.autism.org.uk/advice-and-guidance/topics/about-autism/focused-and-dedicated-interests