Dis-order Experts say OCD may be rising in some kids
At dinnertime, 10-yearold Clive Rodgers used to wrap his arms around his plate because he was afraid of germs at the table.
“I was really scared, and if somebody tried to move my arm, I would, like, get really angry and stuff,” says Clive, who lives in San Diego with his parents and two younger siblings.
Clive is just one of many young people who have struggled with obsessive-compulsive disorder. OCD affects about 1 in every 200 children and teenagers, which is similar to the prevalence of diabetes in this age group. The hallmarks of OCD are intrusive, unwanted thoughts and repetitive behaviors in response to those thoughts, a cycle that may cause significant anxiety and hamper daily activities.
As the coronavirus pandemic rages on, it’s a tough time for any kid who has to stay home all day, studying remotely instead of going to school, unable to enjoy normal social activity with friends. Such stressors are making OCD symptoms worse in some children, even those who didn’t specifically fear germs before, doctors say.
“Their rituals and obsessions are just worse because their general mental health is worse,” said Suzan Song, director of the Division of Child/Adolescent & Family Psychiatry at George Washington University.
Fears of contamination and illness are generally common among people with OCD, but usually their concerns are not in line with likely threats, said Joseph McGuire, assistant professor of psychiatry and behavioral sciences at Johns Hopkins Medicine. With the coronavirus, which causes the disease COVID-19, there is actual danger present. He is seeing a “rekindling” of symptoms inmany patients who received treatment in the past, and need a refresher.
“In this post- COVID world, you’re hearing from the news media and scientists all saying that this is a real fear,” McGuire said. “So now, it’s kind of providing validity to intrusive, obsessional thoughts that have been popping in your head for quite some time.”
Kids with OCD tend to be very rigid in their thinking, so when it comes to new pandemic hygiene norms, such as hand washing for 20 seconds, “there’s a very fine line between safety and compulsion,” Song said.
Song said that in the first month of the pandemic, some of her OCD patients actually reported feeling less anxious. Because more people in the world recognized a threat — that is, the novel coronavirus — they would say things along the lines of, “I know that other people are taking care of it, so the burden is not on me,” she said. But within three months into the new pandemic reality, general levels of anxiety and depression had risen.
Signs of OCD can emerge in young childhood, but usually between ages 8 and 12 or in late teen years to early adulthood, according to the International OCD Foundation.
Traumatic events may also trigger OCD symptoms.
Gabriella Kroener’s obsessions started around age 11, after a car ran over her foot in a hit- and-run incident. It may have started with a fear of crossing the street and then spiraled to concerns about her siblings crossing the street, traffic, crowds. “The fears just grew and grew and grew,” said her mother, Kim Worden.
Before that, she had been a healthy, social child taking all honors classes, Worden said. After the accident, Gabby
couldn’t participate in cheerleading because of her injury, but she also withdrew from her cheer friends and became much more shy in general. She nearly failed an honors biology course because she didn’t want to work with lab partners, her mother said. Gabby decided to retake the class, which ended up moving online because of COVID-19.
Gabby, who is now 16, says she became fixated on the idea that she was unintentionally harming others, even after she asked people and they said she hadn’t. And she started washing her hands a lot because she feels like “I carry around those germs from hurting people.”
Her worries led her to start knocking on doors and other objects made of wood — a lot. “I always felt like I was, like, going to jinx myself and I always just felt that I needed to do it, or else something bad would happen,” said Gabby, who lives in New Market, Md.
About a year ago, Gabby’s therapist diagnosed her with OCD but acknowledged that she was not the right fit for helping Gabby with her symptoms, Worden said. Through a Facebook support group, she learned about the telemedicine site NOCD, which connected Gabby with a specialist. It was a more accessible, affordable option than alternatives Worden had found, and the therapist has given Worden valuable advice on how to handle situations, too.
“It was a relief to hear a therapist say she can lead a successful life,” said Worden, who works as a 911 dispatcher.
The COVID-19 pandemic exacerbated Gabby’s intrusive thoughts, however. In recent months, she would often sit in bed all day because she feared that if she so much as passed by her siblings on the couch, she would somehow hurt them.
But just before her birthday in July, Gabby went shopping in downtown Frederick, Md., with her friends. It was the first time she had seen them since around the time her school stopped in-person instruction, in March. She bought a couple of pairs of new shorts. The social interaction and activities she used to do in public, like buying new clothes, reinvigorated her mood.
“That’s really helped me to, like, see, like, the purpose in life and, like, why you should get out of your bed, because you can actually have fun, even if you have OCD,” she said.