MY DAUGHTER HAS EXTREMELY OBSESSIVE BEHAVIOR

[MRBC]

Hi. Since my daughter turned 6, she has always been obsessed with a VARIETY of different things. And when I say obsessed, I mean OBSESSED. This type of behavior is something I’ve never seen before. It’s one of a kind. This first occurred when she was 6. I took her, her sister, and my niece to see frozen in the movie theatre. After that day that’s all she talked about, she watched the movie at least 30 more times, I just thought it was cute and I got her a bunch of stuff for it. But then, about 6 months after she had started obsessing over the movie, she just woke up one day, and had no interest at all in it. Permanently. She completely banned the name of the movie from being said in the house. It was so odd. The same thing happened when she was 10 with the movie titanic. For several months it’s ALL she talked about. Except this time she was so obsessed, she did TONS of research on the titanic and still remembers it to this day, but then, one day she woke up and just wasn’t interested at all in it. She didn’t hate it like she did with frozen but it was still so odd. (By the way I am telling you about the most major obsessions she’s had there are so many others that lasted from one day to about 2 weeks where she was so obsessed with doing something that would shut everyone out and do whatever she could to do what she was so obsessed with doing) she also had a “mini” obsession (putting quotations because she didn’t talk about it too much but she was still complaining in love with it) with this one song by pentatonix. Just 1 song for about 4 months it’s all she listened to! But he. Once again she woke up and didn’t care for it anymore. But then. In December of 2019, her friends got her to listen to the soundtrack of Hamilton the musical. And BOOM the worst obsession she’s ever had. She is still head over heals over this musical, it’s been the only thing she’s talked about for 10 months. She can tell you anything about the revolutionary war and her grade went from 65 to 100 in social studies. The part that concerns me the most is that since July 3rd of this year when it became available to watch on Disney plus, she’s watched it 107 times. This worries me so much because when she’s going through an obsession, she doesn’t wanna do anything at all except obsessing over what she’s into at the time. She doesn’t go outside too much because she’s busy watching hamilton and listening to the soundtrack OVER AND OVER AGAIN. A couple days ago she sang the entire 2 and a half hour musical to me. What breaks my heart is that she knows that there’s something wrong with her and she always cries to me to fix her. She’s only 13 she shouldn’t be upsetting over this. I think she may have anxiety because obsessions are a lesser known symptom of it and she has a lot of other symptoms. When I asked her of the other symptoms she told me that every day she paces around her room 3 times for at least 30 minutes each time while listening to hamilton. I worry that one day she will go to college for something that she is just obsessed with and when she gets over the obsession, she will be stuck in something she doesn’t wanna be in. Please help I don’t know what to do!

[HelpingElbow]

Hi

It pained me to a great extent when I read that she's already aware of her issue. If she is asking for help, you need to take her to a therapist. She shouldn't be upset of this, please remind her of that. A li'l assurance will go a long way to help her and calm her mind.

For teenagers, any negative habit that's inculcated before the age of 18, could be treated. So relax and don't worry. She needs a corrective treatment at the moment. It will probably take some time to heal so please be patient.

Now that I have read about her, I feel like knowing more about her. Please share an update on what the doctors have to say.

[sunandbutterfly]

Helping Elbow had some great advice. I would encourage you to seek the assistance of a doctor who can refer you to a therapist...she can learn to cope and manage this. Please let us know how she and you are doing.