The House, the Bunker, and the Panic Room

A New Way to Understand OCD in Children and Adolescents

By Dr Marcus Kevin Lewton

Author of The Four Positions: A Therapeutic Approach to Intrusive Thoughts in Adolescents (under review)

What if OCD isn’t one condition, but four different states of mind?

When we talk about OCD in young people, we often rush to describe the symptoms—the rituals, the handwashing, the tapping, the intrusive thoughts.

But what if we paused and asked:

Where is this child’s mind actually living right now?

That’s the question I explore in my book, The Four Positions.

It’s not abstract—it’s practical, and it’s hopefully going to be changing the way we approach even the most complex OCD presentations.

Think of the mind as a house.

Inside this house lives the child’s thoughts, feelings, fears, memories, and hopes.

When OCD arrives, something happens to the house.

But how it happens is what matters—and it tells us everything about how to help.

Position 1: The Nuclear Bunker (The Claustral Position)

Some young people with OCD don’t just react to fear—they flee from their own minds.

They abandon the house entirely and seal themselves in a nuclear bunker deep beneath it.

• It’s isolated.

• It’s rigid.

• It’s terrifying—but also safe in a twisted way.

In this position, the rituals become life-support systems.

The OCD isn’t just a symptom—it’s how they function.

This is the version of OCD that stops a life in its tracks: children unable to leave the house, attend school, or even speak freely.

And yet—this position is treatable.

But not by breaking down the door.

You have to understand the bunker before you help them come out.

Position 2: The Panic Room (The Psychic Retreat)

Other children stay inside the house—but retreat to a panic room whenever something difficult arises.

They might seem to function normally much of the time.

But as soon as they feel:

• Guilt

• Shame

• Not good enough

• Unsafe

…they retreat into the ritual. The ritual is the panic room. It helps them feel safe again.

This form of OCD is quieter, often misread as sensitivity, perfectionism, or social anxiety.

But the function is the same: avoid the feeling by hiding inside the behaviour.

Position 3: The Persecuted House (The Paranoid–Schizoid Position)

This position comes from object relations theory.

Here, the house isn’t abandoned or escaped—it’s under attack.

The child splits the world into:

• Safe vs unsafe

• Good vs bad

• Right vs wrong

OCD in this position is often obsessed with harm, disaster, or moral corruption.

“What if I hurt someone?”

“What if I’m a bad person and don’t know it?”

“What if I did something wrong and forgot?”

They’re not hiding. They’re scanning the outside world for danger, trying to control what can’t be controlled.

Therapy here is about helping the child tolerate complexity and repair the split.

Position 4: The Damaged but Repairable Home (The Depressive Position)

This is the most hopeful—and the most painful—of the four.

In this position, the child knows the house has been damaged.

They’re no longer in the bunker, panic room, or scanning for danger.

They’re grieving. They’re aware. They’re beginning to say:

“Something’s not right inside me. But I want to face it.”

This is the moment symbolic therapy can truly begin.

We’re not just managing rituals—we’re meeting the child in their readiness to mourn, to rebuild, to grow.

Why This Matters

These four positions aren’t just metaphors.

They’re clinical maps—they tell us:

• What kind of therapy is needed

• When a child is ready for ERP (and when they’re not)

• Why some treatments fail—not because they’re wrong, but because they’re mistimed

I’m not here to throw out the protocols.

ERP, CBT, ACT—these all have a place.

But if we want to truly help, we have to start from where the child actually is.

Not where we expect them to be.

This Is the Shift

The Four Positions isn’t just a theory.

It’s a new framework for clinicians.

It’s a translation guide for families.

And it’s a direction—toward depth, meaning, and respect for the emotional realities OCD hides beneath.

Because we don’t just want children to stop the rituals.

We want them to come home.