If you have a child with any type of anxiety, you are more likely to have a child with anger problems as well. This makes sense. Anxiety is like a pressure cooker. Stress and worry build up over time and eventually it boils over. And when it does – it isn’t pretty. Many parents I work with ask, How do I help my child with anger problems?
It can be so hard to watch your child beat themselves up. To watch them set standards to high, no one would be able to achieve them. To berate, insult and demean themselves. How are you supposed to hep a child with perfectionism?
Having a child with Social Anxiety can be rough for the whole family. You might be dealing with a child who refuses to go to school. A child who spends much of their energy refusing to go places. A child who, if they could, would love to blend in with the wall.
For OCD Awareness Week, I sat down with Chris Baier, the Producer of Unstuck: An OCD Kids Movie and asked him the most common questions I get from parents raising kids with OCD.
OCD is a confusing disorder and parenting a child with OCD can be a struggle. Here are three things I want you to know about childhood OCD.
In honor of OCD Awareness Week I am making this week’s podcast about the three most important things I want you to know about childhood OCD.
Don’t forget to spread your own experience and knowledge about living with OCD this week. Share your story and use the hashtag #RealOCD. The more we share, the more we educate.
OCD Symptoms in children is fairly misunderstood in general, but there are some symptoms that no one wants to talk about. These are symptoms that can be grossly misdiagnosed causing kids years if not decades of poor treatment and not an ounce of help. In this week’s AT Parenting Survival Podcast, I go over what these symptoms are and how to spot them in your kids.
Your child is refusing to move. Your child is thrashing about. Your child has been screaming for over an hour. Welcome to the world of kids with anxiety or OCD. A world where kids have a hard time coping, self-regulating and “rolling with the punches.”
This is my world and I know that for many of you – it is your world too. A world that leaves you wondering how to handle difficult behaviors that pop up all the time.
One of my favorite people to talk to about behavior is Dayna over at Lemon Lime adventures. Her upbeat, empowering perspective often gives me new insight into how to approach my own kids.
This past week I have enjoyed diving into her Calm the Chaos Workshop and have implemented so many of the a-ha moments into my family.
When you have anxiety or OCD – one of the biggest struggles is battling your thoughts. Constant thoughts. Nagging thoughts. Crippling, scary, overwhelming thoughts. They never stop. Teaching kids how to use mindfulness to cope with this relentless barrage of worries can be incredibly helpful. Mindfulness can help anxiety and OCD in many ways.
Finding things that help kids with anxiety or OCD can be a challenge. Kids don’t always like to use the tools they are given and sometimes it can feel like nothing is helping.
One unexpected thing I have found to work incredibly well is…pets! Furry ones, wet ones, ones that tweet and ones that bark. Any and all pets can help kids with anxiety or OCD.
There are three words that can stop a parenting raising an anxious kid dead in their tracks. Back. to. School. Gulp. Going back to school is almost a universal struggle for those of us raising anxious kids.
Anxious kids have a hard time transitioning. They have a hard time separating, they have a hard time with stomach upset. All of which goes into high gear the minute school starts up again. The good news is there are some things you can do proactively to make the first day and the first months to come – more successful.
There is nothing harder than watching your child struggle. Unfortunately when you are parenting a child with anxiety or OCD you do a lot of that. And I mean a lot!
It can be so hard to watch your child struggle with anxiety or OCD. Perhaps you have read all the books and taught your child all the skills, but they are still not empowered to work on their issues. Empowering kids with anxiety or OCD can be an uphill battle.
Do you have a child with all or nothing thinking? If you do, you know what a rollercoaster ride that can be! I am having the WORST day. Fast forward two hours. I am having the BEST day ever! It is enough to give you whiplash. Seriously.
Do you have a “saver” at your house? A child who finds treasures on street corners and everywhere in between? It is normal for kids to love to collect things like rocks, leaves and small toys – but when does it cross the line? When are you dealing with children hoarders?
This week on the AT Parenting Survival Podcast we are dishing the dirt on how to tell the difference between developmentally appropriate behavior and hoarding behavior. I also talk about some concrete ways to help children hoarders not grow up to be an adult hoarder!
All too often kids with OCD feel like they are crazy, weird and alone. This couldn’t be farther from the truth. In fact roughly 1 out of every 200 kids has Obsessive Compulsive Disorder. Luckily there is a movement to help educate the world on what OCD is and how to effectively treat it. As part of this goal, Kelly Anderson and Chris Baier created the documentary Unstuck: an OCD Kids Movie.
