AT Parenting Survival | Raising Kids with OCD & Anxiety

You finally found help for your child with anxiety or OCD but they don’t want to work on it.  Now what?  That can be beyond frustrating! Especially if it took you a long time to connect with the right resources or help. But no need to throw the baby out with the bathwater. There is always a next step, even when our child or teen isn’t able or willing to work on anxiety or OCD. In this we...

OCD comes in many different shapes and flavors. One way it shows up is through the concept of “contamination.” Contamination means something different for each person who suffers from OCD, but they all have two things in common: Something/someone cannot be touched and should be avoided Contamination can spread from object to object, person to person (and even place to place) In this week’s AT Pare...

Having OCD can be a lonely experience. Kids can feel like there is no one else out there who gets their struggles.  And really, who can blame them?  The media (and even worse social media) often spend their time talking about OCD like it’s a meme or an adjective. But feeling alone does more than impact the mood and self-esteem. It can stand in the way of progress and impact our child’s l...

It is hard not to want to control our child’s anxiety or OCD journey. It is hard not to have expectations for how it should turn out. It’s human nature to want to do everything in our power to help our kids. But sometimes the best thing we can do for ourselves and our children is to recognize what areas we do not control. Sometimes we can make the most progress when we learn to let go of expectati...

OCD is sneaky! It hides in the questions our children ask. It disguises itself with curiosity, constant checking or over apologetic responses.  OCD is a family affair and it often gets us as parents to inadvertently grow it on a daily basis. In this week’s AT Parenting Survival Podcast I explore the many ways OCD blindly hooks us in. I talk about what to look for and how to respond instead. P...

A common theme among kids with anxiety or OCD is their health. Are they breathing? Are they choking? Is that bump going to lead to a horrible disease? This week I brought Dr. Dawn Huebner onto the AT Parenting Survival Podcast to discuss how to help kids who have health anxiety or OCD. She also shares her newest book, Facing Mighty Fears About Health , which is part of her series, Dr. Dawn’s Mini...

The idea of going back to school can bring waves of panic for both you and your child. You might want to pretend the first day of school will never happen. Trust me I get it! But there are things we can do in advance to prepare our kids to lessen the likelihood of school refusal. In this week’s AT Parenting Survival Podcast I talk about some common anxiety and OCD themes that create school refusal...

When we are raising a child with anxiety or OCD it can be all consuming. So consuming that we put everything on hold, including our own mental health. This is a slippery slope because without our own mental stability, we won’t be able to be an anchor for our child. In this week’s AT Parenting Survival Podcast I explore why it is so crucial we focus on our own mental health and how this will actual...

It can feel so good when anxiety and OCD pack their bags and give you your child back. Heck, give you your home back. So it can be more than jarring, when that unwanted guest shows back up at your front door. It is normal to feel disappointment, hopelessness and fear.  What if things get really bad again? What if all our progress goes out the window? What if this is a life sentence? Those are...

You’ll often hear the word “fight your OCD.” In fact, one of my favorite books about OCD is called Talking Back to OCD, by John March. But sometimes kids misunderstand what this means (and parents too). When we talk about fighting OCD we are usually talking about a counterintuitive way to push back. A way to approach OCD that may not seem like traditional “fighting” at all. In this week’s podcast...

Many of us learn how to help our kids with anxiety or OCD, but are we doing enough to help them help themselves ? Helping our kids own their journey is key to their long term success. It is similar to that old proverb: If you give a man a fish, you feed him for a day. If you teach a man to fish, you feed him for a lifetime. If we are the ones telling our kids what to do and how to do it, will they...

Most of us don’t love going to the dentist, but for some of our kids it can throw them into a state of panic and fear. This can become a real barrier for check ups, fillings and tooth extractions. So what can a parent do? In this week’s AT Parenting Survival Podcast I talk about how to handle the fear of going to the dentist one small step at a time. *** This podcast episode is sponsored by NOCD....

Anxiety and OCD can cause our children to act in ways that can be overwhelming, disheartening and sometimes even hurtful. It is easy to fall into the trap of taking our children’s anxiety or OCD personally. In this week’s AT Parenting Survival Podcast I talk about the many ways we can take our children’s anxiety or OCD behaviors personally, and what we can do instead. *** This podcast episode is s...

It might surprise some people that the fear of throwing up, Emetophobia, is one of the most common anxiety and OCD themes. For those of us raising a child with it, it isn’t surprising at all! Sometimes this fear is triggered by an event or experience, but often it is the imagination alone that causes this immobilizing concern.  We all throw up and many of us see others throw up, but we are ab...

We will all fall short sometimes and so will our children with anxiety or OCD. They will avoid, they will crumble, they will give in to their anxiety or OCD. That is all par for the course. More often than not they will view these situations as “failures.” They might beat themselves up or use the experience as evidence that they can’t do it again. So how do we approach our child who couldn’t make...

Summer is here and with that comes extra free time for most of our kids with anxiety or OCD. You would think that would be a wonderful thing. Less pressure from school, homework and peer interactions. Less places to be and less things to do. But for some of our kids that extra downtime can actually increase their anxiety or OCD issues.  In this week’s AT Parenting Survival Podcast I talk abou...

It’s hard enough to parent a child with anxiety or OCD, but when your own mental health issues are added to the mix, it can be all encompassing.  But it’s not all bad. Having your own anxiety or OCD issues can help you be a better parent to a child with anxiety or OCD.  You can often empathize with your child more than others can. You know how it feels to have struggles and can relate to...

It is so tempting to try and rationalize with our child’s OCD. It’s a knee jerk reaction that most of us do at some point. We might try to problem-solve their OCD issues away. We might try to bombard them with facts. We might try to convince them that their compulsive behavior won’t do what OCD says it will do. But it is all a waste of breath. And worse than that, it can do some unintentional harm...

How often do we hear from family, friends and even doctors that we should “wait and see” if it gets worse. We should wait and see if the anxiety or OCD grows bigger. We should wait and see if anxiety or OCD becomes debilitating. We should wait and see if it is truly an issue. It is like watching a tornado slowly approach your home and waiting to see if you really need to go seek shelter. When we p...

Anxious kids often have a hard time trying new things. This might impact what they’ll eat, what activities they’ll try or how they feel about going to new places. It can permeate their lives in a way that limits their experiences and holds them back. When we cater to these fears we can unintentionally grow them bigger. But when we force our kids to try new things we can them shut down.  So wh...

OCD can be stigmatizing enough, but when you add sexual themes it can add another layer of guilt and shame.  It can also make parents and even therapists uncomfortable!  How are you supposed to deal with a sexual intrusive thought that makes you squirm? What if your child’s lack of motivation is due to the embarrassment over the content of their thoughts? I invited Tracie Ibrahim, an OCD...

Many kids have fears of animals and insects, but for some it can dominate their lives. They might worry about seeing the feared animal or insect. They might go out of their way to avoid an encounter. It might be an all consuming fear that impacts the things they love and enjoy. In this week’s AT Parenting Survival Podcast,I invited author and psychologist, Dawn Huebner to help us learn how to help...

There are many things that can put a strain on marriages. Once the honeymoon is over it can be a struggle to agree on finances, household chores and parenting. When anxiety or OCD is in the mix it can make a hard situation even harder. Couples can struggle with a variety of issues around their child’s anxiety or OCD including: -Disagreeing on the seriousness of their child’s anxiety or OCD. -Blami...

Many kids have what some people call “pure O” or purely obsessional thoughts. But more often than not those obsessional thoughts are quieted by a menu of mental compulsions that go along with it. So what is a parent to do if their child is doing unseen mental compulsions? I explore “Pure O” and mental compulsions in this week’s episode of the  AT Parenting Survival Podcast. *** This podcast e...

As parents, we all struggle with our children’s tech use. It seems like most kids have their heads buried in their phone, computer or game console.  But what if it goes deeper? What if they are using technology to avoid their anxiety or OCD? What if they are using tech to do compulsions? Or what if tech is part of what is actually growing their anxiety? In this week’s AT Parenting Survival Po...