How to Help Kids with OCD Checking Behavior It starts off with a little nag. Did you do it? Are you sure? The uncertainty grows. The nagging impulse grows. Check! Check again! Until eventually the child caves and checks. But OCD checking behavior is a trap. Mental quick sand, I like to call it. It catches people in a vicious loop that they can’t get […]
How to Spot OCD Symptoms in Teens Most kids with OCD go into adulthood without a diagnosis. This means years of feeling different. Years of feeling ashamed. And years of little to no support. If parents and therapists can learn how to spot OCD symptoms in teens, we could help them save years of unnecessary pain and suffering. OCD requires a very specific therapeutic approach […]
What is Emotional Contamination OCD? OCD can wreak havoc in any family. But one sub-type of OCD that can be particularly painful is emotional contamination OCD. Emotional contamination issues can hurt family relationships and confuse parents. Sadly most people, even mental health professionals, understand very little about how OCD can manifest. OCD isn’t just about germs and constant cleaning. OCD has many themes and sub-types. […]
Moving our Kids with Anxiety or OCD from Dependency to Resiliency We all do things for our kids. But there comes a time when we do too much. We inadvertently send a message that they are not capable of doing things for themselves. Ironically this directly impacts their ability to independently fight their anxiety or OCD. In this episode of the AT Parenting Survival […]
Helping Kids Realize that Avoidance Grows Anxiety & OCD One of anxiety and OCD’s favorite behaviors is avoidance. Avoidance grows these struggles quicker than any other behavior. Anxiety will whisper, “just don’t go.” OCD will plead, “just don’t touch it.” The more our kids avoid (and the more we help them avoid), the bigger these issues grow. In this week’s kids YouTube video, I talk […]
Three of the Most Commonly Missed Compulsions in Childhood OCD OCD loves to hide. It loves to go undetected. We often think that compulsions are obvious behaviors, like over washing or over straightening. Things that we can see. Things we can measure. But compulsions are often so much more complicated than that. They can be subtle. They can hide in plain sight. In this week’s […]
Helping Kids with OCD Realize Reassurance Can be a Compulsion The compulsion is disguised as reassurance. You think you are talking to your child, but you are really talking to OCD. “Will I get sick if I…” “Am I a bad person if I…” “Do I have a fever…” “Did you touch that?” “Can that hurt me…” “What if I called you a bad name […]
As a parent to children with anxiety or OCD, our “normal” wasn’t that “normally” anyway. But now this new normal is taking us to new heights of abnormal.
In this week’s podcast episode I tackle the most common struggles parents are having as they continue to raise kids with anxiety and OCD during this pandemic.
Raising a child during a pandemic is a BIG challenge. But when you add anxiety and OCD to the mix, it can be a tall order to handle.
Many of our kids have a hard time being social with other kids. Some have social anxiety that makes them fear rejection and criticism. Others often feel too overwhelmed and depleted to be social. Unfortunately with the global shutdown, many kids are finding themselves even more isolated from their peers. School closures are limiting social connections and for those with social issues – the isolation is even more severe.
When you are a parent raising kids with anxiety or OCD you can encounter some awkward situations. Like what do you do when a close friend says ignorant things about your child’s anxiety or OCD. Or how do you handle sleepovers when you know your child might not make it through the night?
People think OCD is about germs or neatness, but many don’t realize that OCD can cause images to get “stuck” in a child’s head.
This isn’t about seeing something upsetting and worrying about it. This is about a particular image, scene or character literally “stuck” in their head.
Our kids worry about death. They worry about disease. They worry about germs. And even if they don’t worry about those things now, who’s to say they won’t start? So how are we supposed to explain the Coronavirus to kids with anxiety or OCD?
In this monthly series on the AT Parenting Survival Podcast, I interview parents from the AT Parenting Community as part of our member spotlight. In this month’s episode, I talk to Tiffany as she shares with us her trials and tribulations of raising a child with OCD. She discusses how she learned her son’s tics were really OCD compulsions and the struggle she had finding a professional skilled in treating OCD.
No one likes the idea of throw up. No one likes getting sick. But when you have a child with Emetophobia (the fear of throwing up), they are consumed with the idea of throw up. Will they see someone who throws up? Will they throw up? Will they catch something that will make them throw up?
