Ocd in 8 year old

[Mommyofmk]

I apologize in advance as this post may be a bit long but I want to make sure I get it all out there.
For the past month my 8 year old daughter has been coming to me with these confessions and intrusive thoughts. Things from images of a man and woman having the s-word to just ordinary things that happened during her day at school. From the moment I pick her up from school the confessions begin. She has to get every single detail out and if I interupt her or stop her for any reason she has a complete melt down crying, screaming, anger so I just let her tell me until she's done. As I said before some of the stuff is just normal child things like I borrowed my friends pencil and I asked to go to the bathroom 3 times today. Most of the time she just wants reassurance to make sure everything is ok and that she didn't do anything wrong but then there are times where she will tell me things like that traffic cone looks like a penis or I sometimes have thoughts of a man and a woman having the s-word. Then there are times where she says "I don't know if this is the truth or I'm lying I feel like I'm lying I'm so confused" I have taken her to the children's hospital and she has been diagnosed with OCD however what confuses me is that "I feel like I'm lying" part. I have been doing quite a bit of research on OCD and nothing regarding that has come up. The doctors have also suggested medication for her but I'm still a bit iffy however the wait list for cbt is quite long and I don't want the child to suffer any more than she needs. If someone can please shed some light here and help me out that would be amazing!!

[Mommyofmk]

Your story sounds almost exactly like my daughters it's as if I were writing it myself. The cheating thing happened almost on a daily basis with her. What I did with that was at our parent teacher interview I had the teacher explain to her that, yes, cheating is frowned upon however it is not the worst thing in the world. I suppose hearing it from her teachers mouth was enough to settle her. Yes, my daughter did have a constant "what if" like what if I do this or what if I do that is it bad am I in trouble?? Or she would then say ok what if I did this and then I would ask did you do it and she would reply with an I don't know if I did it I think I did but I don't know. The therapist has told me that ocd can convince you of anything you allow it to. It can twist and bend your mind to the point you have actually convinced yourself you did do it. Have you talked to her about ocd?? Have you explained to her what it is? I label her ocd thoughts as "the bully" and I tell her that she needs to "boss back" to the bully. I found that actually giving it a label and allowing her to see that it's not her actually feeling this but rather a "glitch" in her brain, put her slightly at ease. It is sooo heartbreaking and difficult to see them suffer through all of this they can't even enjoy being a child and do things that children normally do

[Cabrinabaru]

Thank you so much for your feedback.
It is greatly appreciated. I feel like I am in this alone becasue I dont want to involve my friends with it.
What I meant was that she isnt saying and doing the bad things but has truly convinced herself that she did. I cant reason with her about it.
I like the journal idea. We will try that tomorrow.
How does this effect your daughter in school? Does she complete work on time or need to redo things?

[Cabrinabaru]

I forgot to also mention that she is obssesed with thinking she is cheating. If she glances at a piece of paper at school, if we help her with homework, if we make a suggestion, etc.- she considers all of that cheating and will not continue the task or will say she cheated.
Its so heartbreaking to watch because she is so mentally tormented that she cant relax and have a normal conversation with me anymore.

[Mommyofmk]

Yes!!! My daughter is in constant need for reassurance it doesn't matter if I have reassured her once or 100 times she still needs to be reassured she is NOT in trouble. I also find that as soon as one issue is over with and she has confessed and convinced herself that she is not in trouble, another confession comes up and the cycle starts again. When you mentioned your daughters confessions about the bad things that you know she wouldn't do, do you mean she didn't do these things and she has convinced herself she has done them? or did you mean she has started to now do certain things to break the rules?
I know exactly how you feel as my daughter only confesses to me as well. I feel like I have to do anything I can to help her. I decided that I was going to take her to the store and have her pick out her own diary/ thought book. As soon as she has a confession she writes it in the book and I tell her that at 6:30 I will read her stories and we will talk about it for 25 mins and after that she needs to do some arts and crafts. I have found this to be extremely helpful because the confessions were taking up sooooo much of her time.

[Cabrinabaru]

Thank you the info. We have an appointment Wednesday and I plan on discussing this with her doctor.
My daughter is constantly needing reassurance for every single thing. She will ask me 20 times within an hour " am I in trouble if....". It always over things she would never be in trouble over.
I feel like in her " confessional".
Her latest is that she tells me she does things( bad things) that I know she didn't do and would never do( she has always been a rule follower).
Did your daughter do any of these? If so, how did you address it?
It seems I'm the one she does this with- not my husband, therefore, I feel I have the weight of the world on me to bring her through all of this.
Any feedback is greatly appreciated. This is all new to me( we are one month in) and I feel like I'm loosing my mind trying to help her because I can't reason with her.

[Mommyofmk]

I forgot to mention... Distraction, distraction, distraction. Find anyone and anything to distract her from her thoughts. Continue every day just like normal school, daycare etc.