
Are You Talking to Your Child or Your Child’s OCD?!
AT Parenting Survival | Raising Kids with OCD & AnxietyShow Notes
One of the hardest parts of raising a child with OCD is figuring out who you’re actually talking to. Is it your child… or is it their OCD pulling you into another loop? In this episode, we talk about the different ways OCD ropes parents in—whether it’s endless reassurance seeking, constant confessing, permission checking, “just right” demands, or those sneaky checking questions like, “Do I look sick?” or “Is this bad?” I’ll walk you through how to spot when OCD is taking over the conversation: the circular back-and-forth that goes nowhere, the distress when you don’t answer the “right” way, or the need for more and more clarity tied to their specific OCD themes. Then we shift into what you can do. We’ll cover how to talk to your child about these patterns ahead of time, how to team up on a plan for responding, and how to use exposures and tools (like reassurance cards) to stop feeding the OCD loop. And finally, an important reminder: not talking to OCD does not mean ignoring your child. You can still validate, support, connect, and check in, just without fueling compulsions. Pulling yourself out of OCD’s conversations is often one of the first big steps toward real progress.
Links Mentioned in this episode: PDF handout for this episode: www.natashadaniels.com/handouts Join my free series: How to Be an Effective Anchor for Your Child’s Anxiety or OCD — www.atparentingsurvivalseries.com Youtube video: Reassurance can Be a Compulsion Youtube video: Confessions Can be a Compulsion Podcast: How to Use Reassurance Cards
*** This podcast episode is sponsored by NOCD. NOCD provides online OCD therapy in the US, UK, Australia and Canada. To schedule your free 15 minute consultation to see if NOCD is a right fit for you and your child, go to https://go.treatmyocd.com/at_parenting
This podcast is for informational purposes only and should not be used to replace the guidance of a qualified professional.
Parents, do you need more support?
🌸 Here’s are resources I offer parents 👇🏻❤️
Online classes for parents raising kids with anxiety and OCD: https://atparentingsurvivalschool.com
Join the AT Parenting Community (A membership designed to support parents raising kids with anxiety or OCD): https://atparentingcommunity.com
Take one of my FREE webinars: www.Natashadaniels.com/webinars
Check out my books: www.Natashadaniels.com/books
🌸 Other social places I hang out:
http://www.facebook.com/ATparentingSurvival http://www.pinterest.com/ATparentingSurvival http://www.instagram.com/ATparentingSurvival http://www.twitter.com/Parentingsurvival Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
More from AT Parenting Survival | Raising Kids with OCD & Anxiety
Parenting kids with OCD can be tough. Especially since much of how to navigate OCD is counterintuitive. After over two decades supporting parents raising kids, teens and young adults with OCD, I have consistently seen a pattern in what parents get wrong about OCD. In this episode I break down the six most common things parents get wrong, that delay long-term progress and keep families stuck.
Parenting a child with OCD can feel lonely in ways people don’t always understand. Even when you know what OCD is, know what you’re supposed to do, and are doing everything you can to help, there are parts of this experience that can feel overwhelming, confusing, and incredibly hard to talk about. In this episode, I’m getting into some of the parenting struggles that often happen behind closed doors when your child has OCD — the parts that don’t always make it into books, treatment plans, or conversations with other parents. If raising a child with OCD has ever left you thinking, “Surely I’m not the only parent dealing with this,” this episode will help you feel a lot less alone.
Sometimes doing the right thing for your child’s OCD can feel completely wrong.
Maybe they can go to school, visit friends, or function fairly well outside the house, but the second they get home, OCD seems to take over. That can leave parents wondering why the rules, avoidance, contamination fears, or compulsions seem so much stronger in one environment than another. In this episode, I explain some of the reasons OCD can look different at home, including why home may become a “safer” place for compulsions, how contamination chains can build up over time, and why certain family members or spaces can become incorporated into OCD’s rules. I also talk about what can happen when families start believing that changing locations will solve the problem—and why OCD often finds a way to come along for the ride. If you’ve ever wondered, “Why is their OCD so much worse here?” this episode will help you understand what may be going on beneath the surface and what to do about it.
If your child seems to have big reactions to sounds, textures, clothing, food, transitions, or everyday experiences, sensory processing may be playing a bigger role than you realize. In this episode, I’m joined by occupational therapist Laura Petix, from The OT Butterfly and author of The Sensory Code. We talk about how parents can better understand their child’s unique sensory needs, recognize what may be happening underneath challenging behavior and big emotions, and respond with more empathy and less frustration. Laura also shares practical ways we as parents can help accommodate our child’s sensory issues while empowering them to help themselves.