AT Parenting Survival | Raising Kids with OCD & Anxiety

Many of our kids have a hard time self-regulating. Just like other skills, we often have to teach our kids how to successfully handle their difficult emotions. This can be especially hard for kids that have anxiety and OCD. When you are a child who already struggles with hyperarousal, it doesn’t take much to throw you completely off kilter. That is why I invited Lauren Spigelmyer, the founder and...

Do you want me to be your $5 mini-coach sponsor or just support the show? Click here to learn more: https://www.patreon.com/AtparentingsurvivalLinks and things mentioned related to questions answered:Guided imagery: Lori Lite, Calm app, HeadspacePalilalia - speech disorderThe Fall of Freddie the Leaf: A Story of Life for All Ages (to help process the cycle of life and death)CY-BOCS (OCD assessment...

It can get pretty overwhelming parenting a child with anxiety or OCD. But this is a marathon not a sprint and burn out isn’t an option. Overwhelm is an issue we all deal with throughout this journey. It is something that can creep up on you without any warning. So how do we as parents dial down our overwhelm? In this week’s AT Parenting Survival Podcast I talk about the common reasons why we...

Masks are a struggle for many kids, but if your child has anxiety or OCD it can be a much BIGGER struggle. This could be due to many reasons. Maybe they feel claustrophobic. Maybe they have sensory issues. Or maybe they have social anxiety and it seems embarrassing. Regardless of what the struggle is the end result is the same – a child refusing to wear a mask. This becomes extra tricky when masks...

The pandemic has turned much of our world upside down. And now entering into the next school year, everything is different for our kids. If you are entering the new world of online schooling, you are not alone. Many of us are going into uncharted territory this school year. That is why I brought in one of my favorite people to discuss all things behavior – Wendy Bertagnole from the Exceptional Par...

The International OCD Foundation’s annual conference was cancelled along with pretty much everything else in 2020. But the online version did not disappoint, offering some great takeaways for parents raising kids with OCD. In the latest episode of the AT Parenting Survival Podcast I highlight some areas parents need to be updated on if they haven’t already. We talk about approaches for treatm...

OCD symptoms and behaviors can look vastly different in each person. You might have a child who has compulsions centered around contamination while another person might have a child with compulsions around magical thinking. You might have a child with both! I always tell parents that you want to be well versed in all the many ways OCD can pop up. OCD is whack-a-mole and it often changes themes and...

Anxious kids crumble under pressure for a variety of reasons. They might worry about deadlines and school work. They might worry about the social pressures of being called on or being watched. They might fear being less than perfect or being worse than others. They might have difficulties making decisions, worried about picking the wrong choice. In this week’s AT Parenting Survival Podcast, I talk...

There is one thing for sure, next school year is completely uncertain. Will kids go back to school? Will they wear masks? Will school be online or in person? There are more questions than answers when we look ahead. So how do you help an anxious child who craves consistency and stability when reality is anything but that right now? We can’t provide complete comfort, but there are a few things...

“He’s just shy, he’ll grow out of it.” That’s what many parents hear when they voice their concerns about a child with undiagnosed Selective Mutism. Selective Mutism is often missed or completely misunderstood. The sad part is with early treatment, children with Selective Mutism can make great progress. That is why I brought on Anna Biavati-Smith, a Speech and Language Therapist as well as one of...

One of the most common anxiety and OCD themes is the fear of throwing up, also known as Emetophobia. It impacts kids of all ages, and has the power to completely debilitate a person. In this week’s, AT Parenting Survival Podcast I talk to my own eight-year-old daughter about her struggles with Emetophobia and some of the ways she works to overcome it.***This podcast is for informational purposes o...

If a group of children were being mean, would your child feel brave enough to be kind? Being kind isn’t always an easy thing to do. Sometimes it can be a scary thing to do, even a brave thing to do. In this week’s AT Parenting Survival Podcast, I talk about ways to help foster our children’s ability to be kind and do the right thing, even when others aren’t being kind around them. For help develop...

Your child needs help, but therapy isn’t cutting it. Maybe it’s because she refuses to go or perhaps it’s because her issues are just too intense for outpatient therapy. What’s a parent supposed to do when the help isn’t helping? Outpatient therapy is where the road starts, not where it ends. Many parents don’t realize that. In this episode of the AT Parenting Survival Podcast I invited Sami,...

Raising a child with anxiety or OCD should come with a warning label, “Warning: May be hazardous to your health.” Being a rock to a child that is often flailing in the sea of chaos, can be draining to even the best of us. It can wear you down, destroy your sleep and impact your mood stability. But it doesn’t have to be that way. There are ways that we can maintain our health and mental stability,...

Parents often grapple with what may have caused their child to become so deathly afraid of throwing up. They come up with theories. Maybe it was the time she saw her cousin throw up? Or maybe it was the time she got sick in the car? Or maybe it was the time she got food poisoning? But in reality, the fear of throwing up (also known as Emetophobia) just happens. Kids who are genetically prone to an...

It is hard to watch our anxious kids suffer. It is hard to stomach their pain. It is very tempting to swoop in and protect them. To soften their fall. To protect them from feeling discomfort. But that is robbing them of the opportunity to build their skills. I find that the best way to help anxious kids is to teach them how to help themselves. But easy to say, right? But how does one do that? In t...

Autism can be a confusing disorder because it often comes with so many other comorbid conditions. Kids with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) can show signs of anxiety, OCD and ADHD. Initially it can be hard for parents and even professionals to get an accurate diagnosis. In this month’s AT Parenting Survival Podcast segment Member Spotlight, I talk to Lynn about her struggles trying to understand he...

Most kids with OCD go into adulthood without a diagnosis. This means years of feeling different. Years of feeling ashamed. And years of little to no support. If parents and therapists can learn how to spot OCD symptoms in teens, we could help them save years of unnecessary pain and suffering. OCD requires a very specific therapeutic approach called Exposure Response Prevention (ERP). If a teen’s O...

OCD can wreak havoc in any family. But one sub-type of OCD that can be particularly painful is emotional contamination OCD. Emotional contamination issues can hurt family relationships and confuse parents. Sadly most people, even mental health professionals, understand very little about how OCD can manifest. OCD isn’t just about germs and constant cleaning. OCD has many themes and sub-types. It is...

We all do things for our kids. But there comes a time when we do too much. We inadvertently send a message that they are not capable of doing things for themselves. Ironically this directly impacts their ability to independently fight their anxiety or OCD.In this episode of the AT Parenting Survival Podcast I talk about how to move our kids from dependency to resiliency one small step at a time.**...

If your child is anxious, they are more likely to be a picky eater as well. This makes sense if you reallythink about it. Anxiety loves to scare our kids. It’s too dark. It’s too dangerous. Anxiety likes to whisperthings about food too. It’s too chewy. It’s too smelly. What if’s like to have their turn too. What if Ichoke? What if it tastes really bad? In this episode of the AT Parenting Survival...

Clinical Separation Anxiety isn’t a toddler problem. In fact, symptoms often start to show up when kids are in elementary or middle school. Separation Anxiety Disorder isn’t about having a toddler follow you around. It is about having a child who experiences sheer panic when they are not by your side. It is about having a child who needs to know your whereabouts every second of every day. In this...

OCD loves to hide. It loves to go undetected. We often think that compulsions are obvious behaviors, like over washing or over straightening. Things that we can see. Things we can measure. But compulsions are often so much more complicated than that. They can be subtle. They can hide in plain sight. In this week’s AT Parenting Survival Podcast, I reveal the three most commonly missed compulsions i...

As a parent to children with anxiety or OCD, our “normal” wasn’t that “normal” anyway. But now this new normal is taking us to new heights of abnormal. In this week’s podcast episode, I tackle the most common struggles parents are having as they continue to raise kids with anxiety and OCD during this pandemic. I tackle questions like:How am I supposed to get my child to do their work? How can I he...

Raising a child during a pandemic is a BIG challenge. But when you add anxiety and OCD to the mix, it can be a tall order to handle. Every month I have a segment on the AT Parenting Survival Podcast called Member Spotlight. This is where I get to spotlight an AT Parenting Community member’s journey through raising a child with anxiety or OCD.This month I talked to Gina. Gina talks about her ongoin...