We did fire drills at home as part of a lesson Jessie was involved in at school. Wiz did not know it was a drill, he thought the house was really on fire. He had been told it was a drill, but when it happened he thought it was real.
That is how we found the stash under his bed. It was the mattress and box springs on the floor, and he frantically dug for his stuff, even thinking the house was on fire. It was that important to him. It finally yanked my husband out of that river in Egypt.
I am sorry he is still taking personal items. I don't believe it was ever about comfort, or the other things that the therapist suggested, such as liking the fabric. It keeps coming up because it is sexual in nature, in my opinion. Until he gets help in dealing with this it will not go away. In fact, given the quantity of items he has taken in the past, and the way it keeps happening again, he may even develop some scary and dangerous behaviors. If he is not given training in how to handle this it WILL escalate. Just the nature of obsession, and particularly of THIS obsession.
I am so sorry. I wish it would just go away. I am not sure where you find the help he needs. Maybe a developmental pediatrician would be able to address this and difficult child's sexual development?
