My 7-year-old son says his brain makes him do things

[FAMILYofBOYS]

Thanks for reading:

My son is a normal 2nd grader with a great group of friends, he is intelligent, loves school, sports, animals, God, everything a normal 7-year old would. He eats well, listens, loves his younger siblings, and never acts out. No broken home, no trouble at school, just a fun, funny, happy kid.

For the past month, he has been behaving strange and "challenging" himself to do things that he thinks of. Examples include:

Walking into a dark room, closing the door behind him, and walking out.

Entering the garage from the house, and walking back in.

Running upstairs to touch the guest-room door-knob.

Sitting in the hallway closet for 10 seconds then coming out.

Jumping off the 5-step landing down to the bottom level of the home.

Wondering what it would feel like if he closed the bathroom door on his hand (he didn't actually do that one).

These things happen a couple times a day.

But the scariest was when he went out in the backyard and was standing at the pool gate. I saw this and interrupted. His reaponse was he wanted to touch the pool water and come back in (he can swim, but still, scary). When I asked why, he said, sometimes my brain tells me to do things, sort of like challenges.

One challenge that he hasn't acted on (yet) is his brain tells him that when he's swimming, he has to swim down and touch the bottom of the pool. Again, a challenge to himself.

A couple months ago, before anybofnthis started, he wanted to jump off a 10-foot diving board (we were there watching). Afterwards (not during), he was crying uncontrollably and was very scared, fearing he wasn't going to surface. Even though he jumped and came up fine, this was the first real challenge we noticed - and since a couple "challenges" have to do with the pool, we wonder if this is what triggered it all.

As of now, it definitely looks like he is truly just "challenging himself" to do things, and I sort of get it as I did a lot of that as a kid, too. But I worry that he is becoming obsessive and allowing those thoughts to take over his focus on important things.

I've explained that it's OK to have those thoughts, in-fact, they are allowed to happen. But we should work on our "brain power" to tell our brain that we control our actions, and that our thoughts do not. He gets it and also acknowledges that there are times when he feels like he just HAS to do it. Aware the thought is happening, but unable to ignore it.

Is it pretty normal to see these behaviors in a kid that age? His concern with his possessions (stuffes, collectibles, rocks, books he enjoys, etc.) and fear of losing them has heightened during this time too.

He has not lost anyone or anything, so I'm confused what may be happening here. Of course, he does not know :)

Thanks!

[RockRose]

Has he had a strep infection recently?  Strep can bring on sudden OCD symptoms,  and it sounds like what he's experiencing.  

[FAMILYofBOYS]

Very interesting. He has not but a week later, he is showing cold-symptomes and getting a bit more sick. I'll look into that!

Thank you.