Freeing Your Child from Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder, Tamar E. Chansky, Ph.D.

Three Rivers Press, 2001

 

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What is OCD? How can I help my child?

 

Description from the Publisher: If you're a parent of one of the more than one million children in this country with obsessive-compulsive disorder, you know how confusing, even frightening, the symptoms of OCD can be. You're terrified of losing your child and angry about the havoc this disorder has wreaked in your family. More than anything, you want to be able to unlock the secrets of OCD, understand the cause of your child's bizarre symptoms, and help your child break free of these disruptive, relentless thoughts and actions.

In her landmark book, Freeing Your Child from Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder , Dr. Tamar E. Chansky creates a clear road map to understanding and overcoming OCD based on her successful practice treating hundreds of children and teenagers with this disorder. In Part I, Dr. Chansky "cracks the code" of the peculiar rules and customs of OCD -- the handwashing, tapping, counting, and so forth. She explains how OCD is diagnosed, how to find the right therapist partner, and how to tailor treatment options to your child's needs. You'll learn how powerful behavioral modification can be and when medication can help. In Part II, you'll learn how not to be pulled in by your child's debilitating rituals at home or at school, how to talk to your child about the "brain tricks" OCD causes, and how to create an effective OCD battle plan that will empower your child to "boss back" the OCD monster. You'll also learn how to cope in moments of crisis.

Part III offers specific advice for how to help your child handle the most common manifestations of OCD such as fears of contamination, checking, getting things "just right," intrusive thoughts, and more. Part IV is an indispensable guide to additional resources, including books, videos, organizations, and websites.

Filled with Dr. Chansky's compassionate advice and inspiring words from the many children with OCD whom she has helped, this book will be your lifeline. Battling back from OCD is hard work, but with the comprehensive, proven guidance in this book, you can help your child reclaim a life free from its grip.

 

Red Flags for Obsessive Compulsive Disorder:

 

 

Obsessions:

 

  • Contamination: fear of catching or giving others germs or illnesses.
  • Aggression: fear of causing harm, intrusive images of hurting self or others; fear of stabbing, tripping, pushing others down the stairs, fear of breaking things or harming people or object without having any contact. Fear that pointing leg or hand in a certain direction means you want to hurt someone.
  • Doubting: being unsure whether you've competed common actions-- locking door, putting homework in backpack, turning sink faucet off, lights off, matches out.
  • Numbers: Thinking that you need to do something a certain number of times to avoid harm, or to feel "just right." Feeling that certain numbers are bad or good luck.
  • Scrupulosity/religiosity: Fear that you have sinned, are guilty, are a bad person, needing to confess all bad thoughts. Fear that you are praying to the devil, or are praying wrong.
  • Sexual themes: Intrusive thoughts, images or doubts about sexual orientation, fears of being perverted; intrusive sexual images; thoughts of incest, fear of bumping or touching "private parts."
  • Loss of Essence: Fear that looking at someone "different" will turn you into that person; fear that if you look at someone who smokes or is a poor student you will become like them.

 

Compulsions:

 

  • Washing and Cleaning: Repeated hand washing, showering, avoiding touching shoes, doorknobs, not bringing items home from school, not allowing others to touch belongings.
  • Checking: Rechecking door and window locks; turning off light switches repeatedly, opening and closing drawers, cupboards, or doors, repeatedly unplugging appliances.
  • Symmetry: Exiting room the same (or opposite) way as entered; bump right arm, have to even out by bumping left, retying shoes till loops are even.
  • Counting: Counting to a certain number while putting on clothes, brushing hair or teeth a certain number of times, having good luck or bad luck.
  • Repeating/Redoing: Rebuttoning clothes till just right, rewriting, erasing, rereading till perfect.
  • Hoarding: Being unable to throw out useless objects, trash, wrappers, old crayons.
  • Praying: Continuous praying, confessing every bad thought, apologizing incessantly, repeatedly questioning proof of existence of God.

 

Excerpt from Freeing Your Child from Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder: Defining the Problem—We’re Not in Kansas Anymore

 

Living in the land of OCD changes everything. The once tried-and-true parental tricks to soothe or redirect no longer work. Your power has been zapped. The mysterious force of OCD has picked you up out of your known way of life and plunked you down in a foreign land. The rules of daily life that you took for granted don’t seem to apply here. Safe isn’t safe enough, clean isn’t clean enough, and loving reassurance—once a simple parental pleasure—is now an endless prospect. As much as you feel disoriented, your child is lost too—her region of safety shrinking with each passing day as doubt erodes any beliefs about what “is.” Commensurate with this erosion is your loss in confidence as a parent. The new daily “musts” of your child’s life seem bizarre and unnecessary. You watch with amazement as the natural order of things is turned on its head. Your child is now in charge, running your household with his moods, moments, rituals and rages. Frightened and desperate, he leads the way, setting the rules. As parents you race around after your child trying to put out fires before they start. However precarious, you take any risk to try to make things right, although you know that peace won’t last.

You Are Here!

What you will learn from reading this book is that while the change of scenery is jarring, perplexing and frightening, your parental instincts do have jurisdiction in this new land. You don’t have to start over or trade in your old tricks for new ones. Armed with the right information, you can sort through the confusion of OCD and see it for what it is—a brain hiccup, a misfiring, a mechanical glitch. It is not the last word, it only acts that way. It can be fought and defeated. With the OCD demystified and demoted from brain demon to brain hiccup, you will be able to reclaim your parental authority and stand firm in your belief that your child can break free from OCD.

 

Praise for Freeing Your Child from Obsessive Compulsive Disorder:

 

Anyone in need of profoundly useful information and expert practical advice on how to help a child afflicted with obsessive-compulsive behaviors would be wise to delve deeply in the pages of this book. Dr. Chansky has accomplished a tour de force, which is certain to offer much-needed assistance both to children with OCD-related problems and to their families.

--Jeffrey M. Schwartz, M.D.

Author of Brain Lock: Free Yourself from Obsessive-Compulsive Behavior and A Return to Innocence

A comprehensive resource no parent of a child with OCD should be without. Dr. Chansky’s experience as founder and director of the Children’s Center for OCD and Anxiety shines through every page.

-- Bruce M. Hyman, Ph.D. and Cherry Pedrick, R.N.

Authors of The OCD Workbook