AboutDr. Jerry Martin, Jr. Expertise I will be able to answer certain questions in general regarding this topic, I will give you recommedations how you can deal with it. OCD is a mild/serious mental illness disorder treatable with dual medication and therapy. Please note: I am not a medical doctor, please do not ask me about medications.
Experience
Past/Present clients I had has worked with youth and adults who had/has Obsessive Compulsive Disorder and other behavior disorders such as ADD/ADHD and combined with OCD.
Certified member of American Psychological Association and a Fellow Member of International Society of Counsellors.
Question I have a 6yr. old daughter who can not throw anything away. She stashes everything from dirty tissues to empty soda bottles. This has been going on for about 5 months. We moved six months ago so I figured that it had something to do with this but it seems to be getting progressively worse. She becomes emotionally distraught when she realizes that something she had stashed away is missing. I do clean things out and tell her that she can not by any means save anything that contained food. She also has rituals for saying goodnight and goodbye that have to be followed by everyone in the family or she has to start all over again. I was hoping that this was just some sort of phase but am getting very concerned that it is continuing. What should I do?
Answer Hi Lisa,
It could be mild case of early OCD but I believe it may be different type of disorder, she is way too young to diagnosed for OCD. OCD is way opposite than what she shows, usually they are fussy, fears of germs, worrying, perfectionist etc. They could be rituals behavior learned by TV or school.
I strongly suggest you take her to child psychologist for further testing and evaluation to see how and why she does it.
