Posted by noa on October 12, 2000, at 15:11:14
The child of someone I know has behaviors that are socially very noxious--his peers (he's a young adolescent) are grossed out by these behaviors, on top of rejecting him for immature social skills.
It seems like these behaviors (nose picking, scalp and skin picking, collecting hair and dandruff on his school desk, blowing his nose into the air, or into a tissue and then looking at the results, touching his ears and then smelling his fingers, etc.) are akin to trichotillomania in the sense that behavioral techniques help him SUPPRESS them for a while, but not for long. And, he does them less when he is more actively engaged in something that is interesting to him.
It doesn't seem like OCD in the sense that there is no "forbidden thoughts" to trigger the behaviors, and there is no ritual patterns. It seems automatic and hard to suppress.
Any ideas of what kinds of medications would work for this type of problem? He takes adderall for adhd and that seems to be helping with the attention, etc. (academically he is doing better this year).
poster:noa
thread:46212
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20001012/msgs/46212.html