OCD can take over our child or teen’s world and sometimes we have to get more intensive support. In this week’s AT Parenting Survival Podcast I talk about the different levels of care that are available to kids with OCD, when to consider intensive outpatient or residential care and what to do when they come back home.
Agoraphobia can prevent our kids from being able to leave the house, be in crowds, go to the movies or travel – just to name a few. It can be a debilitating and life altering disorder and often the signs and symptoms can start in childhood.
Parenting can be an isolating journey, but as women we often have many resources at our fingertips. We have Mommy and Me classes and endless Facebook groups ready to get our mama back. But what about fathers? The fatherhood journey can feel completely different and comes with its own set of obstacles and struggles.
You finally found help for your child with anxiety or OCD but they don’t want to work on it. Now what? That can be beyond frustrating! Especially if it took you a long time to connect with the right resources or help.
OCD comes in many different shapes and flavors. One way it shows up is through the concept of “contamination.” Contamination means something different for each person who suffers from OCD, but they all have two things in common:
Something/someone cannot be touched and should be avoided
Contamination can spread from object to object, person to person (and even place to place)
Having OCD can be a lonely experience. Kids can feel like there is no one else out there who gets their struggles. And really, who can blame them? The media (and even worse social media) often spend their time talking about OCD like it’s a meme or an adjective.
It is hard not to want to control our child’s anxiety or OCD journey. It is hard not to have expectations for how it should turn out. It’s human nature to want to do everything in our power to help our kids. But sometimes the best thing we can do for ourselves and our children is to recognize what areas we do not control. Sometimes we can make the most progress when we learn to let go of expectations and perceived control.
OCD is sneaky! It hides in the questions our children ask. It disguises itself with curiosity, constant checking or over apologetic responses. OCD is a family affair and it often gets us as parents to inadvertently grow it on a daily basis.
A common theme among kids with anxiety or OCD is their health. Are they breathing? Are they choking? Is that bump going to lead to a horrible disease? This week I brought Dr. Dawn Huebner onto the AT Parenting Survival Podcast to discuss how to help kids who have health anxiety or OCD.
The idea of going back to school can bring waves of panic for both you and your child. You might want to pretend the first day of school will never happen. Trust me I get it! But there are things we can do in advance to prepare our kids to lessen the likelihood of school refusal. In this week’s AT Parenting Survival Podcast I talk about some common anxiety and OCD themes that create school refusal and how to work on them before it becomes an issue for next school year.
When we are raising a child with anxiety or OCD it can be all consuming. So consuming that we put everything on hold, including our own mental health. This is a slippery slope because without our own mental stability, we won’t be able to be an anchor for our child. In this week’s AT Parenting Survival Podcast I explore why it is so crucial we focus on our own mental health and how this will actually help our children as well.
It can feel so good when anxiety and OCD pack their bags and give you your child back. Heck, give you your home back. So it can be more than jarring when that unwanted guest shows back up at your front door.
You’ll often hear the word “fight your OCD.” In fact, one of my favorite books about OCD is called Talking Back to OCD, by John March. But sometimes kids misunderstand what this means (and parents too). When we talk about fighting OCD we are usually talking about a counterintuitive way to push back. A way to approach OCD that may not seem like traditional “fighting” at all.
In this week’s podcast I talk about the counterintuitive way to “fight” OCD and why we need to clarify this with our kids.
Many of us learn how to help our kids with anxiety or OCD, but are we doing enough to help them help themselves? Helping our kids own their journey is key to their long-term success.
Most of us don’t love going to the dentist, but for some of our kids it can throw them into a state of panic and fear. This can become a real barrier for check ups, fillings and tooth extractions. So what can a parent do? In this week’s AT Parenting Survival Podcast I talk about how to handle the fear of going to the dentist one small step at a time.
