Disgusting Behavior in Teen

[jen742]

My 15 year old daughter takes Zoloft for depression & Lamotrigine for recently diagnosed epilepsy.  She has some behaviors that have grown so disgusting over the last few years that the family can't stand it anymore.  Some examples: removing tampons in her bedroom & leaving them there, wearing any underwear she can find, even if they're dirty, taking food out of the trash to eat if someone has inadvertantly thrown hers away etc.  As far as personal hygeine, she is great.  She showers daily, spends a long time on her makeup & appearance.  But she has a huge disregard for other people's things & doesn't seem to have a "check" or "filter" for gross behaviors.  Her psychiatrist said that this could be part of an OCD type disorder, which he thought her above Rx may help with.  I haven't seen anything about these disturbing behaviors on OCD symptom lists.  So many of these habits are just incredibly disturbing.  Any thoughts?

[jen742]

Thank you so much for your encouragement!  I do think a good bit of it is teenage slothfulness.  I will look into a psychologist per your recommendation.  And hopefully she can find something that is "her thing" that gets her with some positive people & the behaviors will lessen.

You are a blessing!

[JGF25]

Just from what you are writing, maybe seeing a child psychologist versus a counselor will make the difference.  They are trained to diagnose and come up with a game plan.  You could talk to the psychologist first to give the details about what is going on and then your daughter could start seeing him/her.  I think there needs to be some consistency such as appointments once a week for a while.  It just doesn't sound like OCD to me.  

i will tell you though that my 17 year old does not take responsiblity for anything.  Everything that happens is always somebody else's fault.  He never says thank you unless I make him.  He stays in the basement and there is trash all over the place.  I make him clean it up but it is never really clean.  He never brings home a school book to look at in the evening.  He has okay grades and is in some AP classes so he is no dummy.  He thinks there is nothing wrong with Cs because Cs are average.   Sometimes I wonder if he has any empathy at all and I have asked him jokingly whether he is going to be a psychopath later in life.  He says "No mom."  I am chalking it up to laziness.  The "all about me" syndrome that teenagers go through.  

But even he I think falls into a different category than your daughter.  If I say no eating in the living room, he won't do it.  I think with the other problems, depression and epilepsy, the psychologist would be a good place to start.  

Let me know how it goes.  If anything, you can vent on here.  I'm on here all the time.    

[jen742]

Thanks for your reply.  When I bring these things up she kind of blows it off.  Her sisters are disgusted by it & get on her about it.  She either blows it off or half-heartedly defends herself, which makes them think she doesn't really care that she's bothering them so much.  I remembered today some other gross things - eats pudding cups (no spoon) & then stuffs trash under couch to hide that she was eating there (not supposed to b/c she always leaves big mess), & once I found about 10 of them.  She once used steak knife to clear away the cuticles of her toenails until they were bloody.  Sorry so graphic!  Psychiatrist thought the seizure medicine would help with OCD if she has it.  He asks her lots of questions, but when it gets to the counseling type issues, he recommends we have her see one.  (We have had her with 2 different counselors for behavior/authority issues, but she doesn't get much from it.)  The appointments are 20 minute RX follow-up appts.  Other thing to mention when talking about personal hygeine.  If she sees a mascara or liner that she wants/needs she'll have no problem taking & using no matter whose it was.  I think it's a lack of compunction.  And I don't know what disorder if any that may fall under.

[JGF25]

Well, to be honest with you I have not heard of that either.  The behaviors you have described do not at all jive with her personal hygiene.  I do have a couple of questions.  What does your daughter say when you bring up these things?  How much Zoloft is she taking and for how long?  Also, when the psychiatrist said this could be part of an OCD type disorder, what did he/she say to do about it?  I mean obviously the Zoloft she is taking is not taking care of these particular behaviors.   Does the psychiatrist do any talking to her or is this person just prescribing the meds?  Sorry for the questions but I'm just trying to get a bigger picture of what's going on.  I have 17 and 15 year old boys so I know that age group well.