Grace, ASD and Drawing

Sigh....I need to process something. Here is as good a place as any. Maybe some of my silent readers can tell me if we're on the right track here.

Grace loves to draw. Her drawings are good. Almost too good. They accurately reproduce what she is copying, usually photos of people. We used to think, that's a nice hobby! Since the ASD diagnosis, we now realise that this is a very typical autistic preoccupation. In copying every detail, she is finding a way to control her world, which otherwise is so unpredictable and confusing to her. Other kids with ASD might do this by hand-flapping, head-banging, lining toys up in a precise order and with mathematical regimentality, regular routines which become obsessive coping strategies.

For a long time, we used to just think the drawing was something 'nice' which she used to do for hours in her bedroom, and was desperate to get back to after coming in from being with other people or out 'in the world'. It helped to calm her and she enjoyed it. But now, we are starting to think it has all the makings of a serious OCD activity.

We used to marvel at her persistence! She can work for hours on a single drawing without a break. What dedication, we thought. Until we found out about 'perseveration'. This is what people with frontal lobe damage do, keep going at something unable to stop themselves. We are wondering if this is what we are dealing with: not wonderful perseverance, but dreadful perseveration. But she has had a brain MRI and we were told it was 'normal'.

Since we stopped our usual weekly routine a week ago and dropped all our activities and school work for the Christmas holiday, Grace has been FEROCIOUSLY drawing, holed up in her room all day (if we are at home) and when we call her down to play, eat, complete a chore from her list, or just to hang out with us, she is angry at being disturbed, stomps around sulkily and altogether acts as though she would rather not have a family at all.

I've snuck up stairs and knocked quickly and leapt into her room to make sure that she was indeed drawing, not doing anything she shouldn't, anything wrong or destructive. Indeed, there she is, clamped to her desk, wearing holes in the paper with her furious pencil drawings.

Jamie and I have wondered whether this is just a slightly extreme version of normal teenage development. The desire for privacy, the compulsive need to perfect something, the irritation at being disturbed by your family. We can both remember wanting to be alone as teens. I had 4 younger brothers and sisters in our small home, driving me mad. I would play me records over and over again and sing along with my hairbrush as a microphone, watching myself in the mirror. I wonder if my parents ever worried about ME?

But I didn't have autism.
So, now where are we? Last night we talked to her and explained our fears. We didn't tell her, but I am actually concerned she might be developing OCD, which is so often co-morbid with ASD. She recognises there is a problem: she says she is 'addicted' to drawing. We suggested that what she needed was a day away from it and a chance to re-connect with us, to remember how to hang out and have fun with her family. So, today, she is not going to be allowed to be alone in her room, and we will see how things go. She cried about that but realised we were trying to help.

Can you prevent OCD from starting? Can you divert an ASD teen from developing peculiar obsessional thinking and behaviour? I have no idea if what we are going to try is the right thing or not. I'm scared for her though.