AT Parenting Survival | Raising Kids with OCD & Anxiety

There is a strong relationship between social anxiety and bullying. Research has shown that a clinically significant amount of people with social anxiety have experienced bullying. Often children have a genetic predisposition to anxiety, but environmental stressors, like bullying, blossom that genetic seed. In this week’s episode of the AT Parenting Survival Podcast I talk about the relationship b...

It is common for some kids to worry about growing up. There are many unknowns that can feel overwhelming. But for some kids this fear is all consuming. For these kids their worries about growing up turn into a daily effort to prevent the inevitable from happening. In this week’s AT Parenting Survival Podcast I explore the many anxiety and OCD themes that center around the fear of growing up. I’ll...

There are many creative ways to help anxious kids. One way is through storytelling. Children can immerse themselves into stories and learn along the way. Stories can help normalize the experience of having anxiety and develop problem-solving skills in a more non-directive way. In this week’s AT Parenting Survival Podcast I talk to Dr. Amy Neeren about how to use storytelling with anxious kids and...

It can feel like there is nothing you can do if your child refuses to work on anxiety or OCD. But in reality, that is far from true. We are one piece of the puzzle when it comes to our child’s anxiety or OCD, but it is still an important piece. In this week’s AT Parenting Survival podcast I talk about our role and what areas we can work on regardless of our child’s buy in or collaboration. 🌸 Join...

Raising a child with anxiety or OCD can be a very lonely experience. It can make us feel removed from our friends and family. It can even put a wedge between partners. The more isolated you feel on this journey, the harder it is to help your child. Why? Because your level of support is directly tied to your child’s long term progress. In this week’s AT Parenting Survival Podcast we talk about the...

Dealing with our child’s anxiety or OCD is taxing enough, but sometimes there is another layer of stress. Often our child’s struggles can trigger something deep within us. A childhood wound, a flashback, a remnant of something that has remained dormant within us. When these old wounds are triggered we might have an exaggerated response to our child’s struggles or behaviors. Our past and present mi...

Raising a child with Anxiety and OCD is hard enough, but when you and your partner are not on the same page, it can be even harder. It is common for one partner in the relationship to view their child’s anxiety or OCD differently. Couples can argue over a ton of things including how to handle their child’s struggles and if and when they should get professional help. In this week’s AT Parenting Sur...

It is easy to lose yourself while trying to parent a child with anxiety or OCD. In fact, it can be hard not to. We might have ongoing thoughts about how to help our child. We might be consumed with worry about our child’s future.  We might have dropped activities, friends and hobbies we once found joy in. Our relationships might have taken a permanent backseat. Our health and mental well bein...

When our child has anxiety or OCD, we are often providing some accommodations that inadvertently grow the problem. As we learn about anxiety and OCD, we also learn about the importance of pulling back those accommodations. This is not a black and white process. It takes time, it takes judgment and it takes discernment in the moment. In this week’s AT Parenting Survival Podcast I talk about accommo...

OCD loves to hang out with other issues. There are many comorbid conditions that go with OCD. Misophonia and Misokinesia are two of them.  Does your child feel rage over certain sounds, including mouth and nose sounds? Does your child get overwhelmed by certain motions, like a foot tapping or knee bouncing?  Those are common struggles people with Misophonia and Misokinesia experience. In...

Inadvertently many of us make our child’s social anxiety worse. It can seem, on the surface, that social anxiety is an obvious issue with an obvious solution. But social anxiety is much more complicated than most people think. In this week’s AT Parenting Survival Podcast I outline common mistakes we make that unintentionally make our child or teen’s social anxiety worse. I’ll also outline positive...

Emily and Lindsay both struggled with OCD as kids. Even though they were sisters, OCD showed up in very different ways for each of them.  It wasn’t until Emily was in college that she realized that her anxiety was really OCD in disguise. Lindsay was able to support her sister and get her connected to the help she needed.  When the sisters found themselves back at home during COVID, a des...

There are a few OCD themes that can look very different than the rest. Just right OCD and Disgust OCD themes are two of them. Parents and therapists might struggle to find the “core fear” around these themes. That is because disgust and just right themes have to do with a fear of overwhelm around a feeling . In this week’s AT Parenting Survival Podcast I talk about how disgust OCD themes can show...

Most of us want to raise healthy, resilient, empowered adults, but how do we get there? Our kids don’t magically turn independent and empowered once they pass the threshold of adulthood. The magic is in finding the sweet spot between rescuing and empowering our kids on  a daily basis. Even if we hit that sweet spot half the time, we’ll be building those skills to help our kids feel empowered....

No one knows for certain what causes OCD. We know what areas of the brain are implicated in OCD, but the rest seems up for discussion. We need more research to understand this disorder. Some kids have OCD symptoms due to an umbrella of issues under PANDAS/PANS. Research is showing that inflammation in the brain can impact mental health and cause neuropsychiatric symptoms, including OCD. Many kids...

Annie Gudger was in her twenties and six months pregnant when she lost her husband in a car accident. Her story is one of tragedy and resilience. It is one of loss and love.  In this week’s AT Parenting Survival Podcast I talk to Annie about her journey through grief and the lessons her story can offer us all.  Check out Annie’s memoir, The Fifth Chamber . You can also go to her website...

Ben was always an anxious child, but behind that anxiety lurked something else. It took a stay in a treatment center for eating disorders and eight therapists to finally get the help he truly needed, with the diagnosis he actually had - OCD. In this week’s AT Parenting Survival Podcast, Ben walks us through his journey with OCD, from his inability to share his intrusive thoughts, to his unrelentin...

It is important for all kids to learn how to advocate for themselves. It is an especially important skill for kids with anxiety or OCD. Many of us feel like we have to go to bat for our kids with anxiety and OCD over and over again. But often we forget the important aspect of pulling back over time to teach our kids how to advocate for themselves. Self-advocacy builds self-esteem and empowerment....

Ultimately we want our kids to live a life where they walk towards their anxiety or OCD fears and discomfort. The more they build those anxiety and OCD skills, the more resilient they will become. Natural exposures can help on two fronts. If your child is not ready to commit to formal ERP (Exposure Response Prevention), the main approach in OCD treatment, doing natural exposures can be a great fir...

Sometimes the anticipation of doing something can create even more anxiety than the event itself. Many of our anxious kids have anticipatory anxiety. Anticipatory anxiety can immobilize our kids and create a tsunami of anxious feelings.  Unfortunately anticipatory anxiety can grow anxiety to such a height that it becomes insurmountable when the day finally arrives. So how can we take the wind...

Parents often ask me if they should tell the school about their child’s anxiety or OCD. The answer isn’t a simple yes or no. There are things to consider. Like does their anxiety or OCD impact their academic performance or ability to function at school? Is there a chance that they will be mislabeled or misunderstood due to their anxiety or OCD? In this week’s AT Parenting Survival Podcast I explor...

It is helpful to understand the many different disguises OCD can wear. When we understand how OCD can show up, we can nip it in the bud more often. Relationship OCD is often talked about in an adult context, but it impacts kids and teens as well. I invited Kristina Orlova, an anxiety and OCD therapist and creator of OCD Academy , to come onto the AT Parenting Survival Podcast to help us understand...

When your child is in therapy or you are searching for an anxiety or OCD therapist, you might have expectations and assumptions about how treatment should go. Often those expectations and assumptions are inaccurate. I invited therapists Dr. Josh Spitalnick and Marti Munford from Anxiety Specialists of Atlanta , to sit down with me on the AT Parenting Survival Podcast to discuss the most common mis...

Anxiety and OCD don’t live in a bubble. Often kids with anxiety and OCD have sensory processing issues as well. It can help to understand what is sensory, what is anxiety, what is OCD and what is a little bit of all three! I always like to bring in experts to educate us about things that are out of my wheelhouse. That is why I have partnered with my friend and colleague, Alisha Grogan, from Your K...

When your child is struggling with anxiety or OCD it can feel overwhelming to travel internationally. How will their anxiety handle all the change? Will their OCD be triggered?  Helping our child with anxiety or OCD is a marathon not a sprint, and life should still be lived and enjoyed.  In this week’s AT Parenting Survival Podcast I discuss my tips, tricks and hacks to traveling interna...