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OCD Family Podcast
S3E147: Water Cooler Chats: How OCD Shows Up in School & What Parents Need To Know
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Want a recipe for success? Step one visit ocdfamilypodcast.com courses step two click on my link to browse OCD Training School's amazing course catalog. Step three enroll. And step four enjoy learning with no added cost to you. You can support the OCD family community while grabbing some continuing education or learning how to bridge yourself to self help strategies for OCD. Again, that's ocdfamilypodcast.com courses and use my special link to sign up today. Hey O, welcome back to the Watercooler Chats. Today I'm sharing a resource that could be a game changer for any child struggling with OCD or anxiety in the classroom. Whether you're a parent watching your child suffer or a teacher just wanting to help, this episode is for you. So first, let's talk stats. Today I'm drawing a lot of my data from the International OCD Foundation's website, including research and through their Anxiety in the Classroom resources. More on that later. But to follow along with the class, see what I did there, fam. Jump on over to this episode's blog at ocdfamilypodcast.com, and you can get the links to IOCDF, all the citations and the resources mentioned here. Okay, so here's the deal. IOCDF notes that 50% of adults report their symptoms started in childhood prior to turning 18. And furthermore, 1 in 200 kids has OCD or an OC related disorder. But furthermore, 30% of kiddos have experienced at least one anxiety disorder in childhood. Now, are those numbers surprising? For some parents, yeah, maybe. But for teachers, school staff and practitioners, I'm gonna guess that those numbers sound low, if not right on target. But wait, there's more. If we keep digging around the IOCDF resources, it doesn't take long before we run into a stat that the fan that's been around POD for a while now might recognize. And that's that it takes 14 to 17 years on average from symptom onset to actually receiving an OCD diagnosis and accessing evidence based treatment. Ugh. Yikes. But furthermore, just a little more thumbing around the IOCDF's ever updating research and we find that actually our pediatric numbers anywhere from pre K to teens is more like 1 in 100 when it comes to OCD. So 1 in 100 kids have OCD. Okay, so we just jumped from that 1 in 200 to that 1 in 100 real fast. What gives? Well, the first number also includes OCRDs, also known as OC related disorders, but also as the IOCDF states, on average, children and teens struggle with their OCD symptoms for 2.5 years before being assessed by a mental health professional. It can take another 1.5 years between diagnosis and receiving treatment for the first time. And this is due to the confusing nature of OCD and the fact that many youth with symptoms may try to hide them or may simply not understand what is happening. End quote. Additionally, research has identified two time frames where OCD tends to show up, the first being on that earlier age range, 7 to 12 years old, and the latter being in later teen early adulthood, so say Approximately around age 20. Now, this doesn't mean that these are the only times that OCD can show up, but these are more notable ages that we have been able to draw out of the research. And as with many things that are underreported or under diagnosed, this is 1 in 100 cases that we know about because we know there's lots of people that 14 to 17 year number alone living with OCD and not getting a proper diagnosis. So what can we do as parents, family members, educators or practitioners when OCD is so good at playing hide and seek? Well, knowing what to look for and knowing you don't have to reinvent the wheel on functional tools is a great place to start. So I'm going to highlight a few actionable tips for both parents and school staff for helping your students, whether it's with OCD or anxiety. And then stick around to the end because I'm going to point you to four different takeaways, including a free downloadable takeaway thanks to the fine folks over at Anxiety in the Classroom. So whether you're dealing with OCD or anxiety, of which there are many forms included, but not limited to situational anxiety or what we might term as adjustment to a life event, it can be part of a grief response or a trauma response. It can be generalized anxiety, social or separation anxiety, or even selective mutism. It can show up as a phobia or a panic disorder. I mean, when it comes to anxiety, the struggle is real. So whether it's ocd, which can have the consequence of distressing anxiety, or an anxiety disorder, these symptoms can present very similarly. The good news is it's not your job to be the investigator. This is where working with a licensed mental health professional, your school counselor, or other treatment team support is so important. And as long as we're at it, I'll remind the OCD family community that this isn't therapy either. But this is a community of support and we are cheering you on to find your team, to find support, to validate the struggles and reminding you that you're not alone. Okay, so what can we do to at least learn how to clock when there's some signals that maybe OCD or anxiety is producing meaningful distress? Let's start with tips for the parents. First, warning signs could look like tummy troubles. The tummy aches, the shakes, the feeling nauseous, the too sick to go to school, GI distress, whether we're talking upper or lower. And for some kiddos, they do get so worked up that they actually do get sick. We can also look for reports about hating or not wanting to go to school. If not all out school refusal. Maybe extra sweating, rapid heart rate, extra tears, or maybe even doorknob battles that make getting your shoes on, let alone getting into the car or to the bus stop, a major obstacle. Maybe there's a concern about germs or particular routines that have to happen, like opening the door with your shirt or a tissue, using elbows instead of hands, or carrying around heavy backpacks all day so we don't even have to stop at our locker because please, I just don't want to even, like, deal with it. What if I'm late? What if I get sick? What if I can't open it and I am the social embarrassment of the year? What if, what if, what if? We also want to keep an eye out for perfectionism concerns or a constant did I do this right? Does this look okay? Are you sure it's good enough? I. E. Reassurance? This might be related to something at school, or it might seem completely unrelated. But if the perfectionism and the constant need for those routines and reassurance are present, it's worth keeping a mental note. More flags might include concerns about critical consequences, like really critical consequences, like omg, someone could die or even get hurt type consequences, or a need for exactness or routines to be completed sequentially or else there is just a ton of distress. This is by no means a complete list, and we often see the more rigid action or behaviors, rituals or routines than hear about the whys underneath, particularly for our teen population, because, you know, they got some riz on the line. And so when it comes to school staff, there's both some overlap from what parents are observing and experiencing. And there's also some different things that you might spot. Like when we have a runner, y'. All. Y' all who work in the school, y' all know who those runners are. Whether it's in the halls, classrooms, from the car to the car from recess all the way to ditching, hiding in bathrooms or extended stays at the nurse's office for headaches, GI distress, cramps, you name it. I'm telling you, the school nurses know who the frequent players are, as do the secretaries, y', all. Because who often steps in when staffing is stretched thin? It's the secretaries they know who visits long and often. But also teachers. You might spot people trying to hide or duck from being called on. Very, very shy, sometimes overly slow, maybe in their movements or reactions, dealing with a lot of dizzy spells, or even socially isolating themselves from peers. Now I want to take a quick minute to note we can also see some of those similar presentations peek through in our autistic and neurodivergent population. They learn to take on a mask of what's expected of them over the years at the cost of their own feelings or processing. And hey, if you felt a constant obligation to show up or condition your responses to just, I don't know, get through the day, you'd probably have a decent amount of distress as well. So again, this points back to it's not your job to figure out why the anxiety is there, but it's also important to get support from folks that do understand the function underlying the distress because we have different tools for different causes. If someone is anxious because of autistic masking, then we want to help them identify how this is externally driven and its impact so that we can help that person create a better understanding of their own neuroprocessing while creating a safe environment for their self advocacy and unmasking when possible. Also, we want them to know what tools can be added like self regulatory behaviors including value driven stims or spins that can be leaned into even more. But if someone is demonstrating that distress because of an anxiety disorder or ocd, then we also need to know how that distress is functioning and the evidence based tools available to support management of those disorders. So in short, regardless of the cause, let's shoot for being curious together and linking our students, families and school staff to resources that can help. Which brings me to our final step. Some helpful resources that can help you today. And again, I'm going to list these all over on this episode's blog at OCD Family Podcast. Com. I'm trying to make it easy breezy lemon squeezy for you fam. Because I get it. We're busy and sometimes we're driving or running and we're like I can't write down this website. I got you. Hop on over to the blog. I've got it all set up. So number one, if you are flagging some of these signs or symptoms, reach out to build your team. If you're the parent, talk with your kiddo, but also talk with the school, a mental health professional, or even a medical provider if that physiological stuff is in the symptom presentation. While anxiety and OCD can take on these symptoms, ruling out a bug or another medical condition can give you a peace of mind or offer helpful intervention when warranted. Number two, I'm going to recommend that you hop on over and grab your free downloadable toolkit from Anxiety in the Classroom. You can see the resources are available for parents and caregivers, for school personnel, or for students themselves. So just click on the category that best represents you, enter your email address and they are going to email you a free toolkit guide for OCD and anxiety in the classroom. Number three, if you're curious about whether autism or another neurodivergent processing style is foundational here, then explore getting tested. It's a win win in my book when anyone can feel empowered to understand their brain better. But even more so, at least here in the States, the school personnel can't and won't just call you up and flag if they think your child might be neurodivergent. And the reasons for that, honestly, are above my pay grade. Don't get me started, because as a parent to three autistic kiddos myself, I'll just note it puts a real bug in my rug that there's not clear communication. Something about liability, something about something. Can't we all just chat? Ugh. But that's another topic for another day. At the very least, educating ourselves to learn more about neurodivergent, affirming and inclusive classroom spaces is so helpful. And my go to recommendations are always going to be checking out those autistic led resources from educators and advocates. So it's folks like neurodivergent teacher Mrs. Speechy P. From neurodivergent insights like Dr. NHL or psychiatrist extraordinaire in our own beloved OCD community, Dr. Stacey Greeter, who has so many amazing videos to help explain and teach about autism, but also about this overlap like being autistic, having ocd, having adhd, you name it, Stacy is doing it. She's amazing. And so I'm going to put a link to her YouTube channel also over on the blog. And this then leads me to number four. A bonus tip if you will. Sometimes one, none or all of these things could be at play. You could have an OCD student that has a panic disorder that's also autistic, or maybe has a sensory processing disorder. So what's a parent or educator to do? Expand your team. You don't have to know all the whys and hows. We just want to keep an eye out for and clock the distress so that we're getting the right crew in line to help our kiddos live more fully. Again, understanding your brain, whether it's because you're autistic or you have OCD or you're anxious, it is a strength when we can understand how our brain is functioning and what tools will actually help us. All right fam. Well, that's all the time we have for today, but as the school year for so many of our children has started or is getting ready to kick off, it seemed like as good a time as any to dish out some tools, remind us that we're not alone, and give us some things to keep an eye out for as we dive into this school year. If you've experienced a tool or an idea that's worked for you, please share it with the class. Because whether you're commenting on Spotify or YouTube, or whether you're enjoying this podcast and sharing it, retweeting dming, tagging a friend, leaving a review, we all benefit from your insight and experience. Family. We're better together. Ensuring is caring, right fam? I mean, I'm pretty sure I learned that in school a time or two. And then we'll see you again next week for our final water cooler chat of the summer before the season four premiere. Woot Woot Therapists Are your clients struggling with Disgust Based Contamination OCD? Have you tried upgrading your ERP with the mastery approach? Visit ocdfamilypodcast.com courses and click on my link because I've got just the training for you. At ocdfamilypodcast.com/courses, you can check out OCD Training School's entire catalog of courses, including Rich Gallagher's course Treating Contamination OCD. Where else can you build mastery over disgust based triggers while supporting the fam at no extra cost to you? It's a win win@ocdfamilypodcast.com courses.