AT Parenting Survival | Raising Kids with OCD & Anxiety

OCD is often like whack a mole. Just when you get one OCD theme under control, BOOM, another one creeps in to take its place. This can be disheartening, especially if you don’t have the right mindset. OCD is an octopus and its tentacles are the themes. It doesn’t matter what tentacle is causing disruption, it’s the octopus that’s the problem. Often OCD will present new themes when our kids are mak...

OCD approaches are constantly evolving and changing. This is in part due to the wonderful, ongoing research around OCD. In recent years we’ve seen a growing number of OCD therapists incorporate ACT, Acceptance and Commitment Therapy , into OCD therapy.  We’ve also seen more clinicians embrace the Inhibitory Learning Model approach and have seen practitioners adapt ERP ( Exposure with Response...

Anxious thoughts grow, build momentum and turn into an avalanche of overwhelm. But what if kids with anxiety were taught how to stop the mental chaos before it grew out of control? What if they were able to reframe their fears and calm their mind? When kids have anxiety, one of the most powerful tools at their disposal are thoughts themselves!   In this week’s AT Parenting Survival Podca...

Parenting can seem overwhelming and exhausting. But when you look at it through the lens of conscious parenting, it can offer some hidden gems. Parenting can tell us so much about ourselves. It can offer us insights that we might not have gotten otherwise.  Our kids can also be our teachers. They come with so many gifts if we allow ourselves to see it that way. In this week’s AT Parenting Sur...

Anxiety and OCD doesn’t just live within our child, it lives within our home. It impacts everyone in the family, including the siblings. What happens to the sibling when all eyes are focused on the child with anxiety or OCD? What happens to them when there are big meltdowns, panic attacks and overwhelm. What happens when they are the target of those BIG feelings? In this week’s AT Parenting Surviv...

It is so hard to see our kids struggle. As parents, many of us know what things might trigger our child’s anxiety.  How often do we flinch before they feel anxious?  How often do we swoop in and remove the trigger before our child experiences it?  How often do we catch them before they even fall? I know I have been guilty of this!  In this week’s AT Parenting Survival Podcast I...

Kids with anxiety or OCD need an anchor. They need us to be a rock that helps ground them through the chaos. Unfortunately we cannot do that when we are so immersed in their struggles that we are drowning right along with them. In this week’s AT Parenting Survival Podcast, I talk about learning how to lovingly detach from our child’s anxiety or OCD. I discuss how this is not about removing our lov...

Parental burnout can take any one of us to our knees. When we are riding on fumes we aren’t good for anyone, including our kids. In this week’s AT Parenting Survival Podcast, I talk about things that cause parental burnout and what we can do to dig our way out of the hole. To take a deeper dive on this topic join my FREE AT Parenting Survival series: Self-Care for Parents Raising Kids with Anxiety...

OCD doesn’t just stay in our home, it likes to wreak havoc in all areas of life, including at school.  OCD intrusive thoughts and compulsions can make a child look like they: Struggle to read Struggle to write Struggle to do math equations  Struggle to complete assignments Struggle with comprehension Struggle with focus Struggle with expression Struggle with problem-solving Sometimes the...

We have expectations about how our children’s lives should be. We have expectations about how our family should be. This can be reinforced by friends, family or even the school system. So what happens when all those expectations fall short? What happens when we look at our reality and it doesn’t match up? Parenting is messy and we don’t get to control how it unfolds. We don’t get to control our ch...

Anxiety and OCD don’t live in an isolated bubble. I wish they did! But unfortunately they often like to hang out with several other issues. The tricky part is knowing how to handle those issues differently, because they require us to do so. In this week’s AT Parenting Survival Podcast, I talk about five common issues that are often seen with Anxiety and OCD. I also explore how those issues are han...

It is hard to watch your child being bombarded with intrusive thoughts day and night. No parent wants to see their child suffer, but how are they supposed to help their kids? Unfortunately when it comes to OCD, the answer is often counterintuitive.  In this week’s AT Parenting Survival Podcast I explore the nature of intrusive thoughts and the best ways parents can help their kids work throug...

PSP: 243 Handling Preschooler Sleep Issues One of the first signs of anxiety in young children is sleep disturbance! Sleep disturbance can have a ripple effect throughout a child’s day. It can make them more cranky, anxious and irritable. It can make us, as parents, exhausted and impatient. That’s why I thought it would be helpful if I brought Allison, a sleep and wellness coach, onto the podcast!...

We all have our ugly moments as parents. We all show up in ways we don’t want to show up for our kids with anxiety or OCD.  But what do we do after those ugly moments are over? In this week’s AT Parenting Survival Podcast I explore what triggers ugly parenting moments and how we can repair our relationships after they are over. *** This podcast episode is sponsored by NOCD. NOCD provides onli...

We talk about helping our kids realize when it is their anxiety or OCD ruling their behavior. But what happens when we get a loud bark when we do it? Is it a bad sign if our child gets angry? Should we stop? In this week’s AT Parenting Survival Podcast, I talk about when and how to call out your child’s anxiety or OCD and what to do with their reactions. Also, if you want a deeper dive on how to a...

When your child acts up do you take it personally? Do you have a knee jerk response that is filled with hurt, anger or frustration? Join the club! We all do at times. In this episode of the AT Parenting Survival Podcast, I am going to walk you through the most common reasons why this happens, how it impedes our child’s growth and what we can do instead. The doors to my AT Parenting Community are o...

Even though we don’t want to accommodate our child’s anxiety or OCD, it doesn’t mean that we can’t support or reassure our kids. Yes, I said reassure our kids. It’s how we reassure our kids that matters. Do we reassure their anxiety or OCD, or do we reassure them.  It is important to validate our children’s feelings and help them problem-solve. It is also helpful to reassure them that they’ve...

This week my FREE series, Survival Tools for Parents Raising Kids with Anxiety or OCD starts! Are you needing help on where to begin or how to help your child? Don't miss this free support. You can go to www.atparentingsurvivalseries.com to sign up. You will get emailed links to the videos as they are released. Each 30 minute video will be on-demand, so you'll have access to it as the series runs....

Even though the holidays are exciting, they can bring with it some struggles for our kids with anxiety or OCD. Often these issues are unrelated to their anxiety or OCD themes. The holidays bring with it downtime, gatherings, new foods, busy schedules and high expectations for fun. All of which can cause our kids stress and anxiety. In this week’s AT Parenting Survival Podcast, I talk about some of...

It’s hard enough having one child with anxiety or OCD, but what if you have more than one? What if even your partner or you also struggle?  It can be daunting to realize you have a packed house full of anxiety or OCD. Trust me, I get it! But even though we can’t control if this happens, we can control what we do about it. In this week’s AT Parenting Survival Podcast I talk about how to refram...

It’s hard not to focus on what we have done or haven’t done to help our child’s anxiety or OCD. It is a slippery slope and many of us fall into the black abyss of self-blame. In this episode of the AT Parenting Survival Podcast, I talk about why parents shouldn’t blame themselves for their child’s anxiety or OCD. I also talk about how this type of thinking can hold you, and even your child back.&n...

It can be overwhelming when your partner triggers your child’s anxiety or OCD. In the latest episode of the AT Parenting Survival Podcast I talk about how our partner’s can trigger our kids, why that sometimes happens and most importantly…what to do about it! *** This podcast episode is sponsored by NOCD. NOCD provides online OCD therapy in the US, UK, Australia and Canada. To schedule your free 1...

Raising a child with anxiety or OCD is hard enough, but when you disagree with family members on how to approach it, the boat gets even rockier! In my practice I often watched as family members bickered over whether they should consequence behavior that was anxiety or OCD related.  I would hear things like: You coddle him too much You just need to discipline her more You can’t let them get aw...

Raising a child with anxiety or OCD is a balancing act. We have to learn when to push and when to not push our kids with anxiety or OCD. We want to empower them without overwhelming them. We want to validate their fears without always accommodating them. But how can you tell when you should push it and when you should stop? In this episode of the AT Parenting Survival Podcast I talk about some way...

Anxiety and OCD can make our kids question everything, including their reality. This is different from a philosophical curiosity to understand the nature of the universe. These thoughts create sheer panic in our kids and teens. In this week’s episode of the AT Parenting Survival Podcast I explore depersonalization, derealization and existential fears and talk about how we can help our kids when th...