honeycomb Asked December 2014
Why is my Mom saying and doing things obsessively?
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My mom has had several bad strokes. Just recently she has started obsessive behavior. Her blankets on her bed are never straight enough, she smooths them constantly. That's just one example.... She has been calling my name about 6 times a minute and I cannot leave her bedroom. What is going on? Aren't I giving her enough attention? She constantly needs reassurance that everything is OK. I'm so worried. Is this brain damage from the stroke? Once sent my the strokes occurred on the right side of her brain ,making the left very weak. Please let me know if your loved one went thru something like this and what did you do?
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"Only about 15 percent of patients with OCD have onset after age 35. “Late onset” OCD (after age 50) is unusual and is most likely to be due to organic causes, such as strokes (ischemic, hemorrhagic) in the basal ganglia or frontal lobes."
That link also includes treatment and medications: "As we noted above, medications that inhibit serotonin reuptake appear uniquely effective in treating OCD symptoms. These include the serotonin reuptake inhibitor clomipramine (Anafranil) and such selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs) as fluoxetine (Prozac), fluvoxamine (Luvox), paroxetine (Paxil), and sertraline (Zoloft). These drugs are most commonly used to treat depression."
You need to get your mom to a good neurologist who can work with you to get the right medication to ease her anxiety and OCD behaviors. Good luck and please keep us posted. I'm sure it's so frustrating to be dealing with these behaviors!
There may be other medical causes.
This is for certain NOT the cause: anything you did or did not do. This is not about how much attention she is getting from you. It is about a problem in her brain.
Do take her to see her primary care doctor, or the specialist who treated her strokes.