afraid of violent thoughts

[eafats]

My 10 yr old daughter has come to me crying after having a thought of harming or killing a family member or pet.She complains of the thoughts every few days for the last couple of weeks.We recently moved away from friends and family.should I seek counseling or wait and watch.Should I downplay ex.,everyone has bad thoughts etc.She also is worried that she is weird for having them.
                                                scared parent

[Roger Gould, M.D.]

You might want to post this same question on the child behavior forum on this site. If this is related to the move away, then I would try to engage your daughter in a discussion of that, and let her frustration and anger come out in words, rather than nightmarers. I would also be generally supportive, and give it time.

[amayah]

I am not a psychologist-although i do have obsessive compulsive disorder and it sounds like thats what your duaghter is experiencing.She is having unwanted thoughts -you can reasure her that she would nevr act out on these thoughts -noone ever does -w/ ocd-and she in no way is weird-people have bad thought s all the time.My advice also would be to keep an eye on her and make sure shes ok-sometimes people who have ocd go from one obsession to the next-reassure her she can tak to you about any of it.She may forget that she ever had this obsession and be fine-just watch her.I am 25 and i have ocd-and i still never told anyone although ive been to a psychologist-its good that your daughter confided in you-most of the time we are too embarassed to tell anyone .Either way-shell be fine-good luck

[wildcat]

I think you should get her to counseling right away. They say most abusive people start out harming animals and having violent thoughts. Eventually they may act upon them and if they do, it only gets worse. She may be under stress from the move and need some reassurance and attention. Counseling will be good attention and move her into a more positive thinking mode.

wildcat

[hannahsmith]

I have obsessive compulsive disorder, and my unwanted obsessive thoughts began when i was about 10. They got a lot worse when i was under stress or went through changes.
Having unwanted obsessive thoughts does not make you bad, and IF it is OCD your daughter has, then she is very unlikely to act upon the thoughts. OCD'ers feel guilt and bad for thoughts they have which many other people have too, but dismiss, and they are fearful of their thoughts, feel guilty and very anxious.Those who do nasty things or are violent are very often without remorse and feel no guilt or fear and do not spend endless time wishing they didn't have the thoughts. I am not a psychologist but i just wanted to say that i could relate to the things which were described.

[inter~BARK_]

I know just what you mean!  I've been getting the same thing.  I'm a 16 year old junior in high-school, not diagnosed with any real illness or oddity (although I would really like to be...)
But anyway, sometimes I will look at someone and all of a sudden all  i can picture is them being..."violently assaulted" or however you wish to put it.  I keep picturing myself slicing peoples tendons in their arms or shooting them in the head. ( I really dont want to get to graphic with it) But what really scares me is it wont...get out of my head in a sense, I can't stop thinking about it.  I'll try to focus on something else or try meditating (not in classes) and it keeps hitting me(could this be a sign of OCD?) And its odd, because when I think about it sometimes I lose control of my body.  Like there is some sort of inner meter if you will and these thoughts just blow right past the limit.  Sometimes I just get really large twitches, like my arms will flail for a second or I'll just shake like crazy for a few seconds without any control until I calm down...I've even blanked out one time, I woke up with the teacher in the class yelling at me anddd my desk was knocked over with everything on top spilt over...I dont know what actually happened, and thats the kind of thing that happens and it is so scary...I don't know whats happening.  My family and I as assured that I have a major social problem...I cant talk to people at all, I get really anxious in places with people, sometimes to the point I will throw-up.  But I dont know what happening.  These thoughts just wont go away...and they hurt me so much to think.

[Nebula]

It doesn't mean your daughter has Obssessive Compulsive Disorder - maybe she is watching too much **** violence, **** on tv, or in the movie theater since she is missing her old friends and filling her social time with tv. (I moved as a 12 year old and kids are not nice and friendly right away).
  If it continues, have a child psychotherapist see her. Not a pill popping psychiatrist.  If she needs psychiatry, the psychotherapist will refer her.