Do you have a special needs child that is obsessed with personal possessions, even if they belong to someone else? Does your child actually cry if you throw something away that hasn’t been touched or brought out of the toy box in a year? Do you have to purchase certain toys or movies again if they become broken to keep your sanity?

According to Wikipedia “

Obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) is a psychiatric disorder most commonly characterized by a subject's obsessive, distressing, intrusive thoughts and related compulsions (tasks or "rituals") which attempt to neutralize the obsessions. Thus it is an anxiety disorder.”

What comes to mind first is my blog-mate Julie’s recent post about Lulu wanting every one to call her Mufasa. We recently had to purchase a new copy of the Lion King when we realized our old one wouldn’t work anymore. It was either buy a new one, or listen to the four-year-old cry, scream, and thrash about on the floor for hours at a time.

One of my teenage sons can’t stand to get rid of anything. He once began crying in Wal-Mart when the associate at the jewelry counter accidentally broke my watch replacing the battery and said in order to replace the watch; I needed to surrender the broken one. Then he talked about it for months afterwards.

Each time I go on a cleaning spree and start tossing things, he claims each to be his favorite toy. When I tell him that it hasn’t seen the light in six months, he always says he didn’t know where it was.

He bemoaned the loss of our family vehicle when we traded it in, thinking we should keep it around like an old horse. Broken dishes receive equal lamenting with old clothes.
Fortunately, we haven’t moved since before his birth and I’m not sure that he could take such a loss.

I found this link in The Clean Home Journal about recycling your old junk like toys, dishes, pots and cans into flowerpots placed strategically around your property. That way you don’t actually have to get rid of anything and you claim to be on the cutting edge of high fashion.

Not only that, but you can do this project with your children, which is a great communication starter. You can talk with your child about when they played with the toy. If your child didn’t come to live with you at that young of an age, you can talk about what they played with or their early childhood. It has been my experience that older kids talk more when they aren’t looking you in the eye and they are busy with their hands.

How to Get Your Older Adopted Child to Talk to You
Living with OCD: Call Me Mufasa
Time Alone? – Living with FAS and ADHD
What Kind of World Do You Want…Autism Speaks