OCD Symptoms in Children

Video Transcript

"Hi I'm Dr. David Thomas. I am a practicing psychotherapist with the Whitford Thomas Group in Tampa, Florida here to discuss OCD symptoms in children. OCD is Obsessive Compulsive Disorder. It is a chronic anxiety disorder, psychiatric disorder characterized by obsessive thoughts and compulsive behaviors. In children the symptoms are not uniquely different than they are with adults the problem with children is they often times have a hard time really sensing that there is a problem. They have these obsessive thoughts that almost always revolve around fear of something, a saber toothed tiger if you will or a bear in the woods. It can be a fear of death. It can be a fear of achievement. It can be a fear of germs. It is always fear based because the behavior is designed to ward off fear so in essence the behavior is designed to kill the bear or to kill the saber toothed tiger. Unfortunately with children with OCD symptoms they can be quite a handful from a parental standpoint and so often parents, I mean let's face it parenting is pretty difficult anyway so certainly if you have a child who is obsessive compulsive it just adds another component to the parenting process. It is important for parents to be patient and certainly if you have a child who is suffering from Obsessive Compulsive Disorders you want to get them to a psychiatrist because there are a lot of medications that can be very helpful in dealing with OCD with children and if you don't seek out some type of medical treatment and certainly you want to see a therapist s well certainly a cognitive behavior therapist that can help the child with shifting the behaviors and managing their thoughts a little bit better because if you don't do that what you are going to find is the child is really going to suffer a lot in various different ways be it school, social relationships, just coping generally speaking. It is a big load, it's a tough thing with children so seek out some assistance, therapists as well as a psychiatrist. I hope this information has been helpful to you. From Tampa, Florida I'm Dr. David Thomas."