When my daughter was 3 I started noticing little things, like when she would color a picture her crayons had to be put back exactly in the same color order that she had them before. I just thought it was her little personality coming out. As she got a little older she started obsessing about placement of things in her room. I just thought it was cute that she was being neat so early in life. She would start crying and get anxious if she could not fix it fast enough. When she was 4 she began to obsess about her velcro of her shoes had to be fastened just right or she would take them off and start over. Now that she is six her new obsession is clothes, she has to try on three sets of clothes in the morning before going to school. She is beginning to show signs of extreme anger and anxiety each day. I mentioned it to her pediatrician one time when she had an anxiety spell at the doctors office. The doctor said that she may have something called Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (OCD). This is something that 200,000 American children and teens have. The doctor explained that it was something that the brain controlled. The brain deals with normal stress differently than mos people would. The doctor said that some kids have severe anxiety with OCD and others have mild anxiety.
Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (OCD) creates obsessions in the mind. Some obsessions are fear of illness, germs, injury, placement of items, and parents dying. My daughter is obsessive with protecting herself against germs. A person’s reaction to OCD is called a compulsion. Compulsions is what OCD patients do to help with their anxiety over their worries. It is a way to rectify the problem in the patients mind. Sometimes they have to repeat the compulsive action many times to accept that everything is O.K. My daughter’s answer to germs is to use hand sanitizer constantly. She goes through two of the big bottles a week, sometimes more.
Another worry that Obsessive Compulsive Disorder patients have is fear of the unknown. My daughter fears that other kids don’t like her because of her OCD. A friend of mine that has a child with severe OCD said that it is also a challenge for her son to make friends that he fears of being made fun of. Unfortunately OCD affects their social networking abilities because it inserts fears about others.
Parents should not be scared to get their child help. My friend said at first she blamed herself for the behavior. She was scared to tell the doctor for fear that her child would have special needs and other kids would treat her child different. I had some of the same fears but was also worried that a child my daughter’s age did not need to have so much self worry. I now am glad that I have started treatment for her so she can flourish as a young adult better than she would have with no treatment.
Being a parent of a child that has Obsessive Compulsive Disorder can be straining on parents. It requires a lot of patience and caring. I thing that it helps parents to learn all that is out there on the subject. Ask your professional that is helping you what they recommend that you read to learn about the disorder. It seems to help my daughter when anxiety hits if I listen to her.
A concern of mine was when my daughter started school how would she cope with her disorder. I first talked with the school counselor and found out that they had other students in the school with the same problem and that they had ways of helping them cope at school. They actually have a meeting once a week with the child to just see how they are and what they need. It helps because the child tries to hide the disorder and its symptoms as much as they can. I think that it helps the student a lot in their social skills. The school counselor talks to the paid counselor and gives him a report once a month as to any concerns that she has with the student.
My pediatrician gave me a name of a counselor that specialized in helping kids with OCD. I learned that there was treatment for Obsessive Compulsive Disorder through taking medications.
As with anything there is controversy about giving medications to children. A popular drug for children is Zoloft. Another way of treatment is behavioral therapy. The therapist helps the patient learn ways of lessening their fears. The counselor helps the patient learn how to cope with obsession and ward off compulsive actions and thoughts. With our particular counselor, he talks with the patient and then talks with the parent.
The key to Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (OCD) is to first recognize the problem, go to a good professional that is strong in knowledge of OCD, stop blaming yourself, and work with the people at the school to help your child cope. I have learned a lot through the few years I have dealt with OCD. I believe that it also requires a lot of love on a parents part toward the child. My daughter knows that she can come to me for anything. Granted she tries to hide some of her obsessions some but after I stopped and paid attention I can now recognize and sometimes help her through her anxieties.
