Being the Model of Healthy Coping Mechanisms for our Kiddos

When a child has Obsessive Compulsive Disorder, family members tend to focus heavily on getting the child the therapy that they need to recover.  While this is obviously the most helpful avenue, I also ask parents to examine their own behaviors for OCD tendencies.  

Most family systems with one OCD-sufferer actually have multiple family members with various presentations of OCD.  OCD is highly genetic.  

The key is recognizing that some mild forms of OCD can actually be quite celebrated in society.  Some professions encourage meticulous, rigid, and overly careful behaviors.  We can have OCD as adults and not even know it! 

However, once a child is in treatment for OCD, it is incredibly important that all the adults in the family system have self-awareness of their own behaviors and seek their own support.  

In Exposure Response Prevention, we are asking kiddos to sit with discomfort and have a tolerance of uncertainty. Parents must go through this process as well in order to properly model and guide their children towards healthier coping strategies.  

Your therapist will assign homework to the parent and child to help support ERP work – but everything we ask our child to do, the parent must also be okay with doing! We are asking our kids to face their fears in treatment, so as adults we must do the same.  

As a therapist who also has OCD, I am acutely aware of the edges of my discomfort.  When I do ERP work with a kiddo, I participate fully in these exercises.  Sometimes my discomfort can actually be supportive to the kiddo because they know they are not alone.  

If you feel that you or your child needs family OCD intervention, please contact Kairos Wellness Collective today.