OCD progress is not linear. It is often actually bumpy along the way. In this week’s AT Parenting Survival Podcast, I explore why things can get messy and how to see beyond the messy to recognize the OCD progress.
OCD progress is not linear. It is often actually bumpy along the way. In this week’s AT Parenting Survival Podcast, I explore why things can get messy and how to see beyond the messy to recognize the OCD progress.
What’s Your Child’s Personal Relationship like with OCD? This video is for educational purposes only and is not intended to replace the guidance of a qualified professional. What is your child’s relationship with OCD? They are in a private relationship that no one, not even those closest to them can see. Only they know when they are feeding their OCD. Only they know when they […]
Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) and Exposure Response Prevention (ERP) are not the same. Many parents seeking treatment for OCD are not aware of that and search just for a CBT therapist. ERP is a specific type of CBT that provides evidenced-based treatment for those with OCD. In this week’s AT Parenting Survival Podcast I explain the difference between CBT and ERP as well as how to find a therapist trained in ERP.
It can be so disappointing when your child has gotten relief from OCD, only to find it rear its ugly head again. It can be even more disappointing if you had the mentality that you can “cure” OCD. OCD is like Diabetes or Asthma. It is something that needs to be watched and managed throughout their life. But there is good news! The more they build those skills at recognizing and identifying OCD, the better they’ll be able to handle the bumps that come their way. Their skills are not lost. All that they worked on is not lost. Their OCD muscles to handle discomfort and deal with OCD head-on are still inside of them. Don’t let OCD convince them that they are starting from square one. They aren’t. You’ve got this. They’ve got this. In this week’s Youtube video for kids and teens I remind them that even with setbacks their skills are still there; their strength is still there.
OCD wants us to take its threats seriously. It wants us to debate with it, argue, and come up with solutions to circumvent the issues it presents. In this week’s AT Parenting Survival Podcast, I explore how these issues can show up and how we can teach our kids and teens to not get caught in OCD’s trap.
Often when our kids have OCD intrusive thoughts the first thing they do is try to get those intrusive thoughts out of their head. They might do what OCD wants them to do. They might try to not think about it. They might debate, argue and fight OCD. Or they might try to come up with a practical solution to the problem OCD is presenting. The issue with all of those OCD solutions is that they are all based on the validity of what OCD is saying. When they take the OCD intrusive thought seriously, they are already hooked into OCD. In this Youtube video I talk to kids and teens about how to not get hooked into OCD’s lies from the start!
We only have a small part to play in our child’s anxiety or OCD success. It is their journey and we are only one piece of that puzzle. But that is a puzzle piece we can work on! Often our own erroneous beliefs, limitations or fears create unintentional barriers to our child’s long term success with anxiety or OCD. In this week’s AT Parenting Survival Podcast I explore some of those beliefs and fears and how we can address them.
Anxiety and OCD doesn’t just impact our child, it impacts the whole family. In this week’s AT Parenting Survival Podcast I explore the most common ways anxiety and OCD can impact our families and how to address these issues to minimize its impact.
Many kids with anxiety and OCD struggle with sleep. This sleep struggle can be caused by a variety of issues that are different for each child. In this week’s AT Parenting Survival Podcast, I explore the most common ways anxiety and OCD impacts sleep and how a lack of sleep impacts anxiety and OCD. I also talk about the approaches that won’t work and what will work instead.
Your child’s OCD doesn’t stay neatly in its lane. It involves everyone around them, especially their family. It will try to get family members involved in their compulsions. It will use family as a tool to grow OCD. Knowledgeable family members get this. That is why family members will often pull back their accommodations and their entanglement in growing the OCD. When family members pull back, it is common for OCD to feel the rage of not being fed. This might overcome your child or teen in that moment. In this week’s Youtube video I talk to kids and teens about how to handle the anger that comes when family members won’t accommodate their OCD and how to see the long term benefit of this type of support.
Teaching our kids to trust their gut instinct can be a lifesaver. But what do we do when anxiety or OCD feels like gut instinct? What if intuition is really their OCD magical thinking in disguise? In this week’s AT Parenting Survival Podcast I explore the differences between gut instinct and intuition vs anxiety and OCD.
OCD and anxiety are best friends and often like to hang out together. But even though they are comorbid conditions, there are some big differences in how you should approach them. In this week’s Youtube video, I talk to kids and teens about the differences between anxiety and OCD and why it is important to approach each in a different way.
So many parents ask me, “How can I stop my child’s compulsions?” The quick answer is, you can’t. You can stop your participation in them, but you can’t force your child to not do compulsions. And even if you can, it isn’t going to bring your child long term success. In this week’s AT Parenting Survival Podcast I address this common question and explore what parents can and cannot do to help their kids with OCD.
I get this question so often I thought it deserved a whole podcast. One of the first things OCD therapists often teach parents is how to pull back their reassurance. This can make a parent feel very uncomfortable and I get it. I have kids with OCD myself. Parents want to know they are doing the right thing, especially when everything feels counterintuitive.
