AT Parenting Survival | Raising Kids with OCD & Anxiety

Every parent begins their journey with hopes and expectations. We imagine what family life will look like, what milestones our children will reach, and the experiences we’ll share together. But when anxiety, OCD, autism, ADHD, chronic illness, or other challenges change that picture, many parents find themselves quietly grieving the life they thought they’d have. In this episode, we talk about the...

Even the most dedicated parents can unintentionally miss what OCD is really doing. If you’ve ever wondered why your child’s OCD keeps changing, why the same strategies don’t seem to work anymore, or why treatment feels like it’s not getting to the root of the problem, this episode is for you. In this episode, I’ll walk you through eight common signs that you may be viewing your child’s OCD through...

Starting treatment for OCD can be one of the most hopeful steps a family takes, but it can also be one of the most confusing. Many parents expect that once their child begins therapy, exposures, or a new approach at home, things should immediately improve. Instead, they are often surprised when anxiety spikes, meltdowns increase, or OCD seems louder than ever. In this episode, I explore why OCD re...

Many OCD themes are frequently misunderstood, misdiagnosed, or completely overlooked because they don’t match the stereotypes most people associate with OCD. In this episode, I dive into the OCD themes that often fly under the radar, including Moral OCD, Harm OCD, POCD, SOCD, ROCD, disgust based OCD, symmetry OCD, and Just Right OCD. I talk about how these themes can present in children and teens,...

When the fear of throwing up begins to take over a child’s daily life, it can quietly shrink their world. School, eating, travel, social events, exercise, sleepovers, restaurants, and even ordinary conversations can suddenly feel unsafe. In this week’s AT Parenting Survival Podcast, I’m talking all about emetophobia, the intense fear of vomiting, and how it can show up as both anxiety and OCD. We’...

Defiance can be one of the most misunderstood signs of OCD in children and teens. When kids refuse to touch certain things, avoid everyday tasks, struggle with homework, take excessive time completing routines, or seem resistant to basic expectations, it can easily look like oppositional behavior. But underneath that behavior may be intrusive fears, avoidance compulsions, contamination concerns, o...

Contamination OCD is often much more complex than many parents realize. It is not always about germs, handwashing, or obvious fears of illness. For many kids, contamination OCD can center around chemicals, certain people, objects, or even an intense feeling of disgust rather than fear. In this episode, Natasha breaks down the subtle ways contamination OCD can be missed, misunderstood, or accidenta...

Watching our kids struggle with OCD can feel overwhelming, exhausting, and emotionally draining. When we understand OCD and begin recognizing compulsions more clearly, many of us naturally shift from accommodating behaviors… to hyper-focusing on every compulsion, reassurance loop, and avoidance pattern. This is what I call becoming the “OCD police.” In this episode, I explore how parents can unint...

“Just right” OCD can be one of the most confusing forms of OCD for parents, because it doesn’t look like fear. In this episode, we’re unpacking what it means when OCD is driven by a feeling instead of a specific fear. That internal sense that something is off, incomplete, or not quite right can keep kids stuck in loops that are hard to explain and even harder to stop. You’ll learn how “just right”...

It feels so natural to explain, reassure, and try to calm your child down when OCD is loud. After all, that’s how we solve problems in real life. But OCD doesn’t play by those rules. When we try to reason with OCD, we often get pulled deeper into its loop, answering more questions, giving more explanations, and still watching our child struggle. In this episode, I talk about why reasoning and reas...

Most parents think the hardest part of raising a child with anxiety or OCD is figuring out what to do. But the truth is, learning the skills is just the beginning. In this episode, I walk you through the three stages parents naturally move through when learning to handle OCD, from that first moment of awareness, to the messy middle of trying to implement strategies, to the point where things start...

When you’re parenting a child with anxiety or OCD, it’s easy to get caught in a constant push to fix, improve, and move things forward. But when our expectations don’t match where our child actually is, it can quietly create more frustration, more pressure, and more disconnection for everyone involved. In this episode, we explore how to recognize when expectations are starting to do more harm than...

Good communication can feel like the missing piece when you’re raising a child with anxiety or OCD. You’re talking, explaining, reassuring, and trying to help, but somehow the conversations still feel stuck, tense, or like they’re going nowhere. In this episode, I unpack what good communication actually looks like, and why it’s not about saying the perfect thing or fixing the problem in the moment...

When our child is anxious or stuck in OCD, everything can feel urgent. The questions, the reassurance seeking, the distress, the pressure to fix it right away. As parents, our instinct is often to respond quickly so we can calm things down. But sometimes the most powerful thing we can do is pause. In this episode, I talk about the power of the pause and why slowing down our response can actually h...

Parents often hear the same questions from their child again and again, and it can be hard to know if answering is helping or making things worse. In this episode, I break down the important difference between anxiety reassurance and OCD reassurance. While they can look similar on the surface, they serve very different purposes. Anxiety reassurance often comes from a child not trusting their abili...

ARFID can look like OCD, anxiety, extreme picky eating, or even a traditional eating disorder, which is why so many parents feel confused about what they are actually dealing with.  In this episode, I break down the five types of ARFID, avoidant, aversive, restrictive, mixed, and ARFID plus, and explain how each one presents differently. We also talk about how ARFID overlaps with OCD and anxi...

Most parents think they know what their child’s OCD looks like. They see the washing. The checking. The obvious behaviors. But what they’re usually seeing is just the tip of the iceberg. OCD isn’t only handwashing or checking. It’s mental reviewing, silent debating, internal checking, trying to “neutralize” a thought, confessing, reassurance seeking, avoidance, symmetry rituals, and that constant...

Harm OCD is one of the most frightening and misunderstood themes of OCD, especially when it shows up in children. Intrusive thoughts about hurting oneself or someone else can feel shocking, confusing, and deeply distressing for both kids and parents. These thoughts often clash with a child’s true values, which is exactly why they feel so intense. In this episode, we gently unpack what harm OCD rea...

OCD rarely stays contained inside your child’s mind. It often pulls parents directly into the cycle through reassurance questions, confessing, repeated checking, cleaning rituals, avoidance rules, or even scripting exactly what you are allowed to say.  If you feel like you are constantly answering the same questions, following invisible rules, or walking on eggshells, OCD may be involving you...

How do you know if your child is just worried, anxious, or dealing with OCD? Kids worry. That’s normal. But sometimes fear sticks around longer than it should and starts to take over daily life. In this episode, I break down the differences between typical kid worries, anxiety, and OCD so you can better understand what your child is really struggling with. We talk about: -What developmentally typi...

In this episode, we talk about one of the most confusing and discouraging moments for parents raising a child with OCD, when things seem to get worse right as you start doing the right things. Many parents interpret a sudden spike in distress, anger, or compulsions as a sign that therapy is not working. But often, this increase in symptoms is actually a sign that OCD feels threatened. When OCD acc...

In this episode, I break down why logical explanations, reassurance, and “talking it through” so often backfire when your child has OCD. While rationalizing may feel supportive and calming in the moment, it actually feeds the OCD cycle and strengthens your child’s need for certainty. I explain what OCD really is, how it operates in the brain, and why it isn’t a problem of logic or understanding. Y...

In this heartfelt and insightful episode, I sit down with Mia Mason, the creative force behind Worry’s Whispers , a beautifully illustrated collection of poems that gives voice to anxiety, fear, and the quiet corners of the inner world that so many of us know all too well. Mia and I explore the origins of her work, what inspired her to turn internal dialogue into poetic expression, and how Worry’s...

When parents start looking for help for a child with OCD, the process can feel confusing, overwhelming, and high-stakes. Between therapy options, medication questions, and different levels of care, it’s hard to know what actually matters — and what doesn’t. In this episode, I break down what parents really need to know when seeking treatment for OCD. We talk about why the therapist’s training matt...

Parenting a child with OCD can feel incredibly isolating. Your child is on their own journey with anxiety or OCD, but that doesn’t mean you’re supposed to navigate it alone. In this episode, I talk about one of the most overlooked pieces of helping kids with OCD: parent support. I explore questions like: Who do you turn to when things feel overwhelming? Do you have access to other parents who get...