AT Parenting Survival | Raising Kids with OCD & Anxiety

It is hard to accept that our child has anxiety or OCD. It is even harder to accept the pain, discomfort and struggle they have to go through each day. But often we spend so much energy trying to swim upstream we get lost in the struggle.  In this week’s episode of the AT Parenting Survival Podcast I talk about the role acceptance can play not only in our lives, but in the lives of our childr...

Most people aren’t thrilled to get a shot or get poked by a needle, but some of our kids are deathly afraid. This fear can cause severe panic when going to the doctor, the dentist or worse the lab or hospital! In this week’s AT Parenting Survival Podcast, I invited a co-host who knows this topic inside and out, my nine-year-old daughter. We talk about what type of fears often pop up around shots a...

Parents will often ask me, “Can my child catch other anxiety or OCD themes?” What if they read a book on OCD or anxiety and it makes it worse? What if they watch a documentary or participate in a support group with tons of other themes discussed? Won’t their anxiety or OCD just get more ideas? In this episode of the AT Parenting Survival Podcast, I go into if and how anxiety and OCD themes can be...

Anxiety and OCD can bring with it distress, fear and discomfort. But it can also bring self-loathing, shame, guilt and negative self-talk.  When our kids are hard on themselves, their issues can compound, making it difficult for them to use their tools to address anxiety or OCD.  In this episode of the AT Parenting Survival Podcast, I invited Kimberley Quinlan on to talk about how self-c...

None of us like to see our kids suffer. That’s why it’s so hard to see our kids struggle with anxiety or OCD. It can consume their life and ours and that’s heartbreaking.  But no matter how badly we would like to take their anxiety or OCD away from them, we just don’t have the power to do so. In this week’s AT Parenting Survival Podcast, I talk about how we often try to make our children’s an...

Anxiety and OCD love to glom onto everything our children love, including sports. It can make your child anxious, sick and panicky before a game, meet or competition. OCD can go one step further and create compulsions around the sport. I invited Cali Werner, Anxiety and OCD Clinician, athlete and author of Anxious Annie , to come on to the AT Parenting Survival Podcast and talk to us about how to...

The biggest gift we can give our kids with OCD is knowledge. The more they understand how OCD works, the more effective they’ll be at crushing it. One of the biggest areas of confusion is the difference between obsessions and compulsions and why it matters. In this week’s AT Parenting Survival Podcast, I explain the difference between obsessions and compulsions and how to use that understanding to...

Anxiety and OCD are both highly genetic, so it’s not surprising that many parents find themselves raising kids with similar issues. Often though, many of us back burner our own help to focus on our children’s needs. But what if focusing on your needs also helps your child’s struggles? In this episode of the AT Parenting Survival Podcast I talk to Nathan Peterson , an anxiety and OCD therapist, a Y...

The comparing game can be so tempting.  Why can her kids do that and mine can’t?  Why is it so easy for them and everything is so difficult for us?  Why do we have to go through this?  I wish my child was like that. Trust me I get it, I live it. But in this episode of the AT Parenting Survival Podcast I talk about how to get out of that mindset or at least not live in it perman...

We cannot cocoon our kids from social media and online platforms forever. Eventually most of our kids will enter the online world. So what can we do as parents to keep our kids safe? What are platforms like Instagram doing to stay on top of the wave of younger and younger children on their platforms? I had the pleasure of talking with Vaishnavi, Instagram’s head of Safety and Well Being. She discu...

It’s hard to find an anxious child who doesn’t have BIG emotions at times. It is par for the course for our kids with anxiety and OCD. So how are we supposed to handle them? What approaches will help our kids learn how to work through those big feelings? I always love bringing you experts in the field! For this week’s AT Parenting Survival Podcast I invited Wendy Bertagnole to talk to us about how...

Can we build self-esteem and self-determination, while helping our kids with anxiety or OCD? Yes! In fact, it is crucial to learn how to do that within the context of our child’s anxiety OCD. In this episode of the AT Parenting Survival Podcast I talk about how to take a strength based approach towards anxiety and OCD. I will talk about what parental approaches will build on your child’s strengths...

Many parents who are raising children with both Autism and OCD find themselves in a no man’s land of sorts. Professionals treating Autism don’t always understand OCD and those treating OCD don’t always understand Autism. Ugh. What a struggle. That is why talking to Dr. Rebecca Sachs is like talking to a rare unicorn. Her practice, CBT Spectrum specializes in both and her knowledge runs deep! ...

Anxiety and OCD doesn’t live in a bubble, it lives in our house. As parents we have to walk the walk and talk the talk. But what does that mean? It means tapping into our own fears, regardless of whether we have anxiety or OCD ourselves. It means knowing ourselves and the human fears that come with it. It means walking towards fear and discomfort the way we ask our kids to do. In this AT Parenting...

OCD is scary enough, but when it starves your child it is alarming. That is how it feels when OCD goes for the one thing your child can’t live without - food.  In this episode of the AT Parenting Survival Podcast I talk about ARFID and OCD. ARFID stands for Avoidant Restrictive Food Intake Disorder and OCD likes to partner with it. I open up about my son’s ongoing struggle with restrictive ea...

Kids with anxiety and OCD often struggle with self-love and self-compassion. It is developmentally common for all kids to struggle with self-compassion, but when you have anxiety and OCD it can be even harder. In this episode of the AT Parenting Survival Podcast I talk with Madina Alam, a Clinical Advisor with NOCD about how we, as parents, can help our kids develop more self-compassion. When kids...

Summer is supposed to be relaxing and fun. But anxiety and OCD do not take a break just because it’s summer. In this episode of the AT Parenting Survival Podcast I talk about ways to set up routine and structure to help reduce anxiety. I also talk about other possible struggles and how to deal with them as we navigate the summer months. This podcast episode is sponsored by NOCD. NOCD provides onli...

Dr. Shefali is a prominent clinical psychologist and the New York Times best selling author of The Conscious Parent and The Awakened Family. In her new book, A Radical Awakening , she talks to women abou how to take their pain and turn it into power.  According to Oprah Winfrey, “The world needs to know. Trailblazing. Life-enhancing. [A Radical Awakening is] one of those books you will want t...

None of us signed up to raise a child with anxiety or OCD. It wasn’t what we dreamed of when we poured over all the pregnancy and parenting books. And yet, here we all are, trying to not only survive, but thrive with our kids and their struggles. What happens when compassion runs dry? What happens when we feel resentful or angry at our kids or the situation? You are not alone if you’ve experienced...

Anxiety and OCD come in many flavors. Often we even name these flavors with various titles like symmetry OCD, Harm OCD, Separation Anxiety, Emetophobia etc.  Does it really matter what theme of anxiety or OCD my child has? Yes and no.  There are pitfalls to wearing blinders and only focusing on your child’s anxiety or OCD theme.  However there are also incredible benefits to underst...

Episode Replay: Interview with Ross Greene Learn how my approaches to anxiety and OCD can compliment and work with the Ross Greene CPS model. This episode is sponsored by NOCD, providing virtual OCD therapy to children, teens and adults across the country and the world (now in UK, Australia and parts of Canada). To get your free 15 minute consultation go to: www.treatmyocd.com Hosted on Acast. See...

Many of us think that if only we can find a qualified anxiety or OCD child therapist, all of our child’s struggles would go away. I wish that were true. I wish that was the case for the children that I have treated and for my own children. But the truth is, as parents we have a major role in how our children do. Even if they are refusing help, there are things we do that can help or hurt the situa...

Kids with anxiety or OCD aren’t just fearful, often they are angry. Anxiety and OCD can cause kids to rage, meltdown and talk back. It can make them dig their heels in and be oppositional.  But when parents react to those behaviors in “typical” ways, they often hit a brick wall.  Why?  Because often anxiety and OCD is the undercurrent driving those emotions. So if you don’t address...

Change is hard on most kids, but it can be especially hard on anxious kids. So what happens when they have to change their teacher or therapist? It can be rough, especially if they were well bonded to the teacher or therapist before the change. Change offers our kids the ability to practice flexibility and can build their adaptation skills. The question is how to do that - especially when they are...

It’s nice to live in the moment, be in the now. But what if it could be more than nice? What if it could help reduce your child’s level of anxiety? What if it can train your child’s brain to stay connected and not live in the trauma of “what if’s?” In this latest episode of the AT Parenting Survival Podcast, I talk to you about how you can teach your child to build their muscle for being in the pr...