Years ago, my oldest son had some mild OCD tendencies

Years ago, my oldest son had some mild OCD tendencies.

• Taping the taps to make sure they are off.
• Checking the fridge over and over to make sure it’s closed.
• Worrying about the door or windows being open.

Nothing harmful, but it’s annoying to him and us.

I point it out to him and give him some suggestions to fix the issue; the normal behavioral modification solutions are not working.

So I start to double down on it and play along. “Did you close the tap? Are you sure? Please check again.”

He comes back into the room, and I say it all again. “Did you close the tap? Are you sure? Please check again.”

Make him check the taps more than 50 times until he gets angry and says, “I’m not going to check it again; this is stupid!”

“Good. Now, any time you want, you can stop yourself.”

The new programming works for a few years and spills over to other habits; he can now “stop himself” more easily from other unwanted behaviors. I need to reinforce it every two years or so. Now I only need to remind him of the lesson to make changes.