We want to give our kids everything that we never had, but what happens when we are able to do that? How do we foster appreciation and gratitude? How do we help our children develop appreciation for what they have, when they don’t know what it’s like to not have it?
You are not alone. There are hundreds of thousands of parents just like you. They feel despair, they feel overwhelmed, they feel hope.
Does “self care” equal “self-ish” to you? Often there is a negative connotation with the idea of focusing on yourself, especially when you have a child who is in crisis. Sadly, that is when self care is the most needed.
I know there are a bazillion awareness weeks and months. Every cause, issue or disease has a color or a month. But I wanted to talk to you about why OCD Awareness Week is so important and how you can take part with even the smallest of gestures.
One of the biggest struggles parents have is motivating their child to work on OCD. Who can blame them? Working on OCD can be extremely difficult and overwhelming. But, there is a tool in the toolbox that many parents haven’t explored – that’s ACT.
We many think my sweet, anxious child will never do drugs. In fact, how could she? She’s afraid of her own shadow! I am right there with you. But our young, anxious kids often turn into depressed, overwhelmed teens. The last thing we want is for them to self medicate. That’s why talking about drugs when they are young is so important.
It seems like more and more these days we are having to cope with some horrific things. Mass shootings, school shootings, bombings, hate crimes, environmental disasters and devastating weather are things that we and our children have to contend with all too often. How do we talk to kids when something bad happened?
Dealing with extreme picky eating can be a lonely journey. Barely anyone gets it. People will tell you all sorts of things. Some to lift you up and some to tear you down, but neither wind up being helpful.
Hands down the number one fear I deal with as a child therapist is the fear of bad guys. It isn’t surprising. I remember being a child myself, sitting in my bed, blanket up to my neck, wondering not if, but when would I be attacked.
If the brain can imagine it, nightmares can create it. That can be hard for a child whose brain is constantly coming up with the worst-case scenarios for every situation. And when a child with nightmares, especially an anxious child, has them often – they can start to fear sleep altogether.
What to Do When the Stress of Raising a Child with OCD or Anxiety is too Much You are done. You can’t take it anymore. When will things get better? How long is this going to last? Will things ever change? Raising a child with OCD or anxiety can be beyond exhausting. You are not alone. Many of us have been there. We […]
We all do many things without a conscious thought. Our heart beats. Our food is digested. Our breath goes in and then goes out. Our eyes lids go up and then they go down. Our bladder constantly fills. But what happens when your attention constantly goes to these automatic behaviors? Welcome to the torturous world of Sensorimotor OCD.
In this week’s AT Parenting Survival Podcast episode, I talk about why many of our kids with anxiety or OCD have the hardest time when they are us. And why it often has nothing to do with the parenting.
A young girl worries she might stick out her middle finger, so she goes around keeping her hands in tight fists. Another boy worries he’ll go to hell if he lies, so he can’t even answer a simple question. A teenager boy is fearful he is staring at his teacher’s breasts, so he looks at the floor the entire day. And the saddest part? No one knows these kids are even suffering. Not their parents, not their teachers, not their friends.
Do you suffer from some parental anxiety? Have you gotten more anxious as you’ve gotten older? Do you attribute it to the chaos and stress you experience raising kids with anxiety or OCD? Well, you might be missing one key culprit…hormones!
