Concern about 10 year old granddaughter

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I have a concern about my 10 year old granddaughter, perhaps someone can help me as to whether to address it it or not.

She is a lovely little girl with ADHD which is well-controlled by her medication. However, when I visited her over Christmas she brought up something which troubled me. She says that when she thinks of Jesus and God, bad thoughts come into her head, and she does not want them there. She asked me if I thought the devil was putting these thoughts into her head. She is very disturbed by this. She says the more she tries to get rid of the bad thoughts, the worse it gets. She also is beginning to worry about sin.

This somewhat alarms me. I know this happens to adults, but to a child? She is a very “religious” little girl, she made her mother buy her a Bible and insisted that her mother sit with her and teach her from the Bible. She says she loves Jesus very much, and she has been this way since she was very small. She loves going to church and all things associated with it.

I told her that sometimes this happens when people are very close to God and tried to assure her that she was not sinning, it is not her fault. I wrote down the Prayer to St. Michael and she is learning to say that, but I am concerned that she is beginning to develop a problem with scrupulosity or OCD.

When we were in the car she decided to tell some of this to her Mother, who doesn’t know what to think or do. I suggested she bring her to their priest (who also is a licensed counselor ) and have him talk to her --he probably would have some insight into this. What does anyone her think about this and have you ever run into this with children?

I also do not believe this is a side effect of her medication, as she does not show any behavior problems or irrational thinking, although it may be related to her ADHD, I don’t know. Her problem is mostly in the area of attention deficit.
 
going to the priest is a good idea.

Also, I know 10yo girls. They are stubborn, odd, quirky creatures with the tiniest preview of hormones surging through their blood. They are notorious obsessors. Most sensless fads…slap bracelts, pogs, sillybands were made for 10yo girls. Many series of books, american girl, Percy Jackson, CamJansen, boxcar children, babysitters club, sweet valley twins jr…all cater to the obsessiveness of 9-12yo’s.

So while it is focused on religion and not ponies it seems disconcerting, it may be very natural. But its good to keep an eye on it, because unlike ponies it can have deep implications on her future.
 
My daughter started this very young, it grew into scrupulosity/ocd. We were not a fire and brimstone family. God was never portrayed as harsh. She developed other things with germs, sickness. I finally stopped being in denial and put her in counseling. She’s doing soo much better now. I should have done it sooner. She rarely sees her counselor anymore -maybe a few times a year if something becomes an issue (she’s 16). I don’t know if this is what is going on with your granddaughter but the “bad thoughts” was very common with our daughter.
 
Having her talk tothe priest is a good idea, especially if he is also a counselor.

If your granddaughter starts developing OCD symptoms also, then whichever doctor manages her ADHD meds should be consulted.

My daughter also tends to scrupulosity - not severe. She goes to confession regularly to the same priest and that has helped her quite a bit, but she does not have any other issues like OCD.
 
CB_Catholic said:
I have a concern about my 10 year old granddaughter, perhaps someone can help me as to whether to address it it or not.

She is a lovely little girl with ADHD which is well-controlled by her medication. However, when I visited her over Christmas she brought up something which troubled me. She says that when she thinks of Jesus and God, bad thoughts come into her head, and she does not want them there. She asked me if I thought the devil was putting these thoughts into her head. She is very disturbed by this. She says the more she tries to get rid of the bad thoughts, the worse it gets. She also is beginning to worry about sin.

This somewhat alarms me. I know this happens to adults, but to a child? She is a very “religious” little girl, she made her mother buy her a Bible and insisted that her mother sit with her and teach her from the Bible. She says she loves Jesus very much, and she has been this way since she was very small. She loves going to church and all things associated with it.

I told her that sometimes this happens when people are very close to God and tried to assure her that she was not sinning, it is not her fault. I wrote down the Prayer to St. Michael and she is learning to say that, but I am concerned that she is beginning to develop a problem with scrupulosity or OCD.

When we were in the car she decided to tell some of this to her Mother, who doesn’t know what to think or do. I suggested she bring her to their priest (who also is a licensed counselor ) and have him talk to her --he probably would have some insight into this. What does anyone her think about this and have you ever run into this with children?

I also do not believe this is a side effect of her medication, as she does not show any behavior problems or irrational thinking, although it may be related to her ADHD, I don’t know. Her problem is mostly in the area of attention deficit.
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I would tell her pediatrician about the “bad thoughts.” It sure could be a side effect of her meds. Start there, because the pediatrician may have the answer with no other professionals necessary. If she has anxiety from the meds, her doctor needs to know, even before you take her to the priest. The “bad thoughts” may be symptomatic of anxiety caused or exacerbated by the stimulants.

I have a son with ADHD who has been taking stimulants since he was 9. At one point he was diagnosed with depression and put on an anti-depressant. After just 2 days, his personality was completely different, for the worse. Medications are very powerful chemical compounds and sometimes they don’t agree with the person.
 
I would suggest that you bring it up with her mother. She probably ought to mention it to the doctor who is treating your grandchild’s ADHD. Most of those medications have side effects and they can get worse as children enter puberty. Also, most pediatricians are not specialists in ADHD and will only treat it as far as writing a script for drugs. If your grandchild is having side effects from the drugs and has not seen a specialist, it might be better to take her to a doctor who might recommend other kinds of treatment and less or no drugs.
 
TheRealJuliane said:
I would tell her pediatrician about the “bad thoughts.” It sure could be a side effect of her meds. Start there, because the pediatrician may have the answer with no other professionals necessary. If she has anxiety from the meds, her doctor needs to know, even before you take her to the priest. The “bad thoughts” may be symptomatic of anxiety caused or exacerbated by the stimulants.

I have a son with ADHD who has been taking stimulants since he was 9. At one point he was diagnosed with depression and put on an anti-depressant. After just 2 days, his personality was completely different, for the worse. Medications are very powerful chemical compounds and sometimes they don’t agree with the person.
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Many people don’t realize that anti-depressants in the young can actually stimulate suicidal tendancies.

See this article for example explaining the FDA issues 2nd warning: health.dailynewscentral.com/content/view/1199/0

GRANDMA… you need to tell the mother IMMEDIATELY. You and she should look up the meds your grandaughter is on, and check ALL the side effects. DRs are regularly not fully aware of ALL the sideeffects a certain drug may cause, a pharmacist could probably answer your questions WAY better. (I personally ended up in ER with a side effect listed as #2, that the ER doc, and my Doc BOTH failed to recognize… it was the “layperson” that alerted me to it… and I actually called my Dr. to have her look it up!)

Then, once a medical situation is evaluated and elminated… Then Talk with the priest.

Good observations!!!
 
Allegra said:
I would suggest that you bring it up with her mother. She probably ought to mention it to the doctor who is treating your grandchild’s ADHD. Most of those medications have side effects and they can get worse as children enter puberty. Also, most pediatricians are not specialists in ADHD and will only treat it as far as writing a script for drugs. If your grandchild is having side effects from the drugs and has not seen a specialist, it might be better to take her to a doctor who might recommend other kinds of treatment and less or no drugs.
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Pediatricians are qualified to follow a child who has been diagnosed with ADHD. If not the pediatrician, the only other doctors who see a child with ADHD are psychiatrists, and they also treat ADHD with stimulants or newer, non-stimulant medications. I have no idea where you got the idea that side effects get worse as a child enters puberty. I have never seen any mention of that, nor have we experienced it. Sometimes the dosage has to be increased as a child grows, but once you find a good fit for the child, side effects are pretty minimal. Some kids never do find a fit, and then other treatments come into play.

Other kinds of treatments? No drugs? Let’s let the family decide about that.
 
TheRealJuliane said:
Pediatricians are qualified to follow a child who has been diagnosed with ADHD. If not the pediatrician, the only other doctors who see a child with ADHD are psychiatrists, and they also treat ADHD with stimulants or newer, non-stimulant medications. I have no idea where you got the idea that side effects get worse as a child enters puberty. I have never seen any mention of that, nor have we experienced it. Sometimes the dosage has to be increased as a child grows, but once you find a good fit for the child, side effects are pretty minimal. Some kids never do find a fit, and then other treatments come into play.

Other kinds of treatments? No drugs? Let’s let the family decide about that.
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I don’t know how you got from my post that I was suggeting anyone other than the child’s family decide on her treatments, As with any medications, changes in effectiveness can take effect when a child enters puberty and adolescence. Among the risks that are common to most medications used to treat ADHD is an increase in depression and anxiety. Furthermore, increased depression and anxiety are also risks associated with being between the age of 11 and 18. Therefore, parents of children who need these drugs have to be watchful for changes in their child’s behavior. You seem to have a bias towards medication-only treatments. You may have found that method successful for your child, but these medications can and do cause side effects, sometimes severe, and these side effects can change as the child gets older. I’ve worked with probably a couple hundred children that take such medication and I’ve seen pretty drastic changes, some positive and some not so much. If you would like to read about the possible side effects and changes that can take place as a child grows older, you can read it on the side of the bottle and the manufacturers’ websites.
 
Just_Lurking said:
Just to be sure we are all on the same page, in a psychiatric context, the term “obsession” refers to repetitive, intrusive thoughts (for example, see here).
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yes 10yo get obsessed with things…especally those with ADD or spectrum disabilities. My point was to not jump to conclusions that its a massive psycatric disorder, but a general neurosie of being ten. Much like a toddler dosn’t have ODD (oppositional defiance disorder) because they parrot “no” and do naughty things. Its a development cue.
 
Allegra said:
I don’t know how you got from my post that I was suggeting anyone other than the child’s family decide on her treatments, As with any medications, changes in effectiveness can take effect when a child enters puberty and adolescence. Among the risks that are common to most medications used to treat ADHD is an increase in depression and anxiety. Furthermore, increased depression and anxiety are also risks associated with being between the age of 11 and 18. Therefore, parents of children who need these drugs have to be watchful for changes in their child’s behavior. You seem to have a bias towards medication-only treatments. You may have found that method successful for your child, but these medications can and do cause side effects, sometimes severe, and these side effects can change as the child gets older. I’ve worked with probably a couple hundred children that take such medication and I’ve seen pretty drastic changes, some positive and some not so much. If you would like to read about the possible side effects and changes that can take place as a child grows older, you can read it on the side of the bottle and the manufacturers’ websites.
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If you think I have a bias toward medication, you would be wrong. I have a bias toward what WORKS for individuals. I do not want parents to rule out medication that will help their child succeed in all areas of his or her life simply because certain segments of society argue against these medications. Stimulants have been in wide use for decades and are some of the most studied drugs in history. They process rapidly out of the body and compared to the benefits they give, have few side effects IN GENERAL. Some individuals do not do well on certain stimulants. My son, for example, cannot take Ritalin, but many ADHD people can and do well on it. I would say for my son, no medication is perfect but he gets more benefits from being on them than not. It is a difficult decision and one best made in consultation with physicians. A child on medications should always be followed by his/her pediatrician or psychiatrist, for side effects and efficacy of the medication.
 
SeaShoreGirl said:
yes 10yo get obsessed with things…especally those with ADD or spectrum disabilities. My point was to not jump to conclusions that its a massive psycatric disorder, but a general neurosie of being ten. Much like a toddler dosn’t have ODD (oppositional defiance disorder) because they parrot “no” and do naughty things. Its a development cue.
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One of the qualifies of an ADHD person is hyper-focus. Once something captures the attention of an ADHD person, they can hyper-focus on that thing to the extreme. People looking from the outside think this quality means that ADHD isn’t present, but it’s just confusing if you don’t live with ADHD.
 
TheRealJuliane said:
One of the qualifies of an ADHD person is hyper-focus. Once something captures the attention of an ADHD person, they can hyper-focus on that thing to the extreme. People looking from the outside think this quality means that ADHD isn’t present, but it’s just confusing if you don’t live with ADHD.
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Errr find that in your magic looking glass did you?

I’m ADD as well as my older brother. My father younger brother are ADHD. (my mother and little brother are “normal”). My boyfriend is ADD or ADHD…i forget because he’s so gentle with me and not bouncy.

I know what being ADD is. I also know that it can exaserrbate NORMAL developmental milestones. It is normal for children of ten to be obsessed with things. It does more damage to kids when you unnecessarly label them. My brother suffered more from people trying to treat his “anger issues” as a teen than if they would of if they let him be a thirteen year old country boy.

He, after failed therepy, failed meds, failed everything discovered he simply needed to excercize every day. That was it. Sometimes problems are not damning and work themselves out.
 
SeaShoreGirl said:
Errr find that in your magic looking glass did you?

I’m ADD as well as my older brother. My father younger brother are ADHD. (my mother and little brother are “normal”). My boyfriend is ADD or ADHD…i forget because he’s so gentle with me and not bouncy.

I know what being ADD is. I also know that it can exaserrbate NORMAL developmental milestones. It is normal for children of ten to be obsessed with things. It does more damage to kids when you unnecessarly label them. My brother suffered more from people trying to treat his “anger issues” as a teen than if they would of if they let him be a thirteen year old country boy.

He, after failed therepy, failed meds, failed everything discovered he simply needed to excercize every day. That was it. Sometimes problems are not damning and work themselves out.
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I actually was agreeing with you. Did you misinterpret what I said? I have a son with ADHD and have been dealing with this for pretty much his whole life. My husband also has ADHD although his manifestation is milder than our son’s.

I realize normal 10 year olds can get obsessive about their interests, I’ve done substitute teaching and studied child development as a curious parent. I’m saying that with a child already diagnosed with ADHD, you can see this hyperfocus and it is completely within normal range for that “syndrome.” (Still not sure what I would call ADHD, I think society is moving more and more toward that being normal and the ones who have attention surplus being the outliers.)
 
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