anyone have a young child (under age 4) "diagnosed" with Anxiety and/or OCD? if so, how have you been managing his/her manifestations? if therapy - what kinds? behavioral strategies? medication?
we've seen a gazillion different kinds of people over the last 3 years and always i've thought DS seems to obviously have an anxiety issue
he has no formal diagnosis, but many, many times we've heard that he seems to tick all the boxes for being on the spectrum EXCEPT for his relatedness.
our current psychologist specializes in autistic spectrum behavior management and again, when we had our first parents only meeting and described our concerns, DS' behavior, etc...the psychologist said, "sounds very spectrum-like to me, but let's have him come in so i can meet him."
at the end of his meeting with DS, he said, "no. definitely not on the spectrum."
ok. then after filling out these forms and having his teacher fill one out, the psychologist now says that DS suffers from anxiety fueled by OCD.
he says our options are behavioral strategies and/or medication.
i am very leery to start psych meds for my less than four year old kid
and we've seen some success with some of the behavioral strategies. but honestly, things are still really, really tough
the mornings are just the worst. we had a few day reprieve when we introduced a new set of rules that DS seemed to think was fun to play as a game. so that worked and he was happy to "play"
but then as of tues, out of the blue, right back to square one.
i'm really at my wits end and not sure what else to try.
we've been trying incentives. we've been trying negative consequences. we've been trying to extinguish by ignoring. but it feels like we're throwing cups of water at a house fire.
i'm extremely discouraged and so sad
he went to school this morning without any breakfast b/c he absolutely refused to yield and stop throwing the food. i have taken away all his favorite toys.
my heart is broken and my head hurts.
i am scared to medicate and scared that i will never see any improvement unless we do
and my husband is really totally useless in this whole process. he isn't here enough to participate. and when he does, he has no focus, no consistency and no time to stay the course and hold his ground. so DS just runs him in circles and then he leaves for work and i'm left to clean up the mess
ugh. any BDTD or advice or words of wisdom would be most appreciated
thanks