Published on 12, July, 2020
Hi there. I'm new here and wanted to get some advice about my daughter. She was diagnosed with ASD when she was 3. She's 6 now and since Christmas her behaviour has got a lot worse. The main issue is her controlling behaviour and inflexibility. She's always been like this but the past few weeks things have got out of hand. In particular are lots of little obsessions, like OCD I suppose; constant checking and turning the lights on an off, rubbing letters out and redrawing them so they look "just right". If any of this is interrupted she explodes with emotion and is very hard to calm down. My concern, and this is what I'd like advice on, is should we entertain these obsessions? Or should we try to limit them in some way? I'm concerned that if we let her continue like this it will get worse to the point of really affecting her quality of life. Although I am not autistic I myself have OCD and in the past it has completely dominated my life and I'm concerned the same will happen to my daughter. Any advice would be greatly appreciated.
Hi NAS51425,
Following on from Binary's helpful reply, you might like to take a look at some of the information about behaviour issues on our website.
There's a range of pages you can access from here: https://www.autism.org.uk/about/behaviour.aspx
In particular this page about obsessions, repetition and routines might be of use: https://www.autism.org.uk/about/behaviour/obsessions-repetitive-routines.aspx.
For further information and advice you may like to contact our Autism Helpline team. You can call them on 0808 800 4104 (Monday to Thursday 10am to 4pm, Friday 9am to 3pm). Please note that the Helpline is often very busy and it may take a couple of attempts before you get through to speak to an advisor.
I hope that is of some help.
Regards,
Kerri-Mod
Thanks very much for your reply. I think I will go to my GP and discuss it and hopefully get a referral. I'm just scared it will get worse as I know from my own experience how debilitating it can be when it gets out of control.
In what I have been told about OCD some little compulsions and obsessions should just be left alone if they are not having any impact on anyone/anything. However most of these behaviours are driven by anxiety and they think they have to do the behaviours in order to get rid of the anxiety. This doesn't work or is only short lived so the behaviours can increase. So the advice I have read says that some behaviours should be challenged (I obviously mean gently but I couldn't think of another word) so the person realises nothing bad is going to happen if they don't carry out this behaviour. So I would say let some of them go and try and limit others. I'm no expert. This is just advice I've been told in the past.
Could you speak to your gp about a referall to CAMHS? They may be able to provide further, more expert advice.