You are learning how to be a parent from a very young age, even from toddlerhood. Seriously! Everything you see, every interaction you have, will impact how you parent your own children. This can be inspiring or daunting depending on what type of childhood you had. But regardless of whether it was good, bad or in between you get to decide how your childhood influences your parenting. This is especially true when you parent an anxious child.
When we ask our kids to face their fears, it can be like asking them to jump off a cliff. Swim with sharks. Jump out of an airplane. All of which I know I would never want to do. That is why offering good incentives is key when trying to get kids to work on anxiety or OCD.
The bickering, the fighting, the taunting and teasing. It is enough to drive a parent to the brink of insanity. Seriously! So how you are supposed to handle sibling fighting? Is there some magic fairy dust to make it all go away?
They dig their heels in. They refuse to go. They refuse to eat. They refuse to move. Oppositional behavior in a child with OCD or anxiety can be all consuming.
So, what are you supposed to do?
Anxiety or OCD can make you feel like you house has been hijacked. It can make you feel like your home is not your own. Having a child with anxiety or OCD can often mean, having a controlling child.
People will try to treat OCD with many different approaches. Treatment of OCD can include the use of talk therapy, play therapy, biofeedback or EMDR. But the truth of the matter is, OCD will not improve significantly without ERP, Exposure Response Prevention.
Have you ever wondered what your child with OCD is going through? What their life is like growing up with OCD?
I had the pleasure of talking to John Tessitore, the founder of the JCK Foundation. He was willing to get raw with me and share some personal details of what life was like growing up with thoughts he hid from the outside world.
Helping a Child with Selective Mutism Selective Mutism can hide behind labels like “shy” and often gets missed by parents, educators and even therapists. I had the pleasure of talking to Patsy Butterworth, a State Coordinator for Selective Mutism.org and a mom to a child with Selective Mutism. Patsy has been a huge advocate for her son through his journey. She now supports other parents, […]
She suffered silently. She suffered often. Her parents didn’t understand her pain. She didn’t understand her pain. So it often goes. Growing up with Separation Anxiety and Panic Disorder can be a disorienting, overwhelming and lonely experience.
Hearing your child confess thoughts that do not make sense can be heartbreaking. Moral OCD is one of the most confusing OCD themes a parent, and for that matter, a child, can experience. Kids with Moral OCD are bombarded with thoughts.
No one thinks they are going to be raising anxious kids. We all have our vision of what parenting will be. It usually does not involve a child with panic, fear and dread.
I didn’t know the level of my anxiety until I brought little people into my world. It seemed like my anxiety just couldn’t hide under the weight of parental stress. That happens to many of us. We strive to become a better parent and we begin to realize that it is actually our own anxiety that is holding us back.
Do you have a sensitive child who wilts at the mere mention of mean people. This week I am talking about how to help our sensitive kids in a world that isn’t always as kind as them.
He just won’t talk to me!” I often hear. Or “I try to ask her questions, but she just gives me one word responses.” So how do you get your kids to talk to you?
Having a child with anxiety can be rough, but having a child with anxiety and ADHD can be complete parental overload!
Both anxiety and ADHD have their own challenges – and together they can be a force to be reckoned with.
