My ten-year-old daughter used to head straight for the bathroom the moment she walked in from school.When I asked, “Why do you always take a bath right away?” she smiled and replied, “I just like to be clean.”But one afternoon, while clearing out the drain, I discovered something that made my entire body shake—and I acted immediately.My daughter Sophie is ten, and for months she followed the exact same pattern: as soon as she got home from school, her backpack hit the floor and she rushed directly to the bathroom.At first, I brushed it off.Kids sweat.Maybe she hated feeling sticky after recess.But the behavior became so consistent that it started to feel… practicedNo snack.No TV.Sometimes not even a greeting—just “Bathroom!” and the sound of the lock snapping shut.One evening, I gently asked her, “Why do you always take a bath right away?”
Sophie smiled a little too carefully and said, “I just like to be clean.That answer should have comforted me.Instead, it bothered me.Not because of what she said.Because of how she said it.Like she’d rehearsed it.Like she’d used it before.And expected to use it again.Over the next few weeks, I started paying closer attention.Sophie seemed normal in every other way.Good grades.Plenty of friends.No behavioral problems.No nightmares.No signs that anything was wrong.Yet every afternoon she disappeared into that bathroom for nearly forty minutes.One day I heard water running.Then running again.Then again.As if she was washing the same thing repeatedly.When she came out, her hands looked red.Raw.Almost scrubbed.“Sweetie, are you washing your hands too much?”She quickly hid them behind her back.“No.”The answer came too fast.A few days later, Sophie left for a sleepover. decided to finally clean the bathroom drain.
