My ten-year-old son has had a recent uptick in anxiety that has caused him to engage in very repetitive rituals before going to bed at night (moving a small trash can back and forth, swinging the bedroom door, rinsing his mouth and drinking water at the bathroom sink, etc.). When we ask him if there are ways to reduce the time these rituals take so that he is able to get a full night's sleep, he gets very angry with us and says that he will be unable to sleep and "so sad" if he cannot complete them. Due to drinking a lot of water at the bathroom sink, he is also waking up in the middle of the night to use the bathroom, and then he has to complete some of these rituals again before he can go back to sleep. Unfortunately, these rituals have been delaying his sleep by up to three hours on some nights, not to mention interrupting his sleep. This morning, he added some rituals to his morning routine and we were unable to leave the house on time for school. When he is not in the middle of these rituals, he seems much more willing to reduce them, but then we get to that time of day and he is unable to stop himself.
We are aware that addressing the root cause of his anxiety would probably be the most helpful, but he says he doesn't know what is causing him stress, so this approach seems impossible.
Although these are clearly compulsive behaviors, I do not think this is OCD. The rituals aren't driven by any specific fear or feeling that something bad will happen if he doesn't complete them -- just that he will be unable to sleep and/or feel sad. He explains that they are self-soothing, which we are supportive of, but the lack of sleep is detrimental to his health and is probably adding to his anxiety.
We have contacted a therapist and will move forward with professional help, but since beginning that process will take a little while, I thought I would reach out to see if anyone has experienced anything similar or has any advice.
Thank you in advance for being kind. We are trying our best.
