Obsessive-compulsive disorder, or OCD, is an anxiety disorder that tends to run in families. The American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, or AACAP, notes that OCD afflicts one out of every 200 children and adolescents. Over time, if a child with OCD is not provided with treatment, the anxiety related to the disorder can intensify and become more severe.
Basics
A child with OCD will experience thoughts that she knows are irrational and unwanted, but the thoughts are recurrent and persistent. These unwanted thoughts increase the child's anxiety levels. To help reduce her level of anxiety, a child with OCD will generally engage in some type of ritual or routine, reports the Anxiety Disorders Association of America, or ADAA.
Significance
The rituals or routines that a child with OCD engages in to reduce his anxiety will significantly interfere with his normal functioning at school, in peer relationships and in his development, notes the AACAP.
Having OCD can be embarrassing and overwhelming to a child. The child may try to hide or cover up his behaviors. When parents, caregivers and teachers are interacting with a child who has OCD, it is important to be sensitive to the child's confusion and embarrassment, and openly communicate with him about his disorder, reports the AACAP.
Treatments
OCD does not generally go away on its own, but the correct treatments are effective at reducing the symptoms. According to the AACAP, children with OCD are treated through a combination of psychotherapy, such as cognitive behavioral therapy, and medications, such as selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors, or SSRIs. Exposure therapy, a form of behavior therapy, is used to reduce the symptoms of OCD in children. HelpGuide.org reports that during exposure therapy a child is exposed to whatever produces her obsession. The therapist will then keep the child from engaging in her compulsion; over time this technique will induce a reduction in anxiety related to the obsession.
Interventions
Relaxation techniques can be used along with therapeutic interventions. Since it is the increase in anxiety levels that cause the child to engage in his compulsion, relaxation techniques can be performed in an effort to reduce the anxiety and keep the child from having to engage in the compulsion. According to HelpGuide.org, meditation, yoga and deep breathing can all be learned and used to reduce the anxiety produced by OCD.
Considerations
Parents, families and teachers play a significant role in any of the techniques that are used with children who have ODC. Those who are close to the child and work with the child on a regular basis will need to be educated on the disorder. They will need to understand the irrational and unrealistic nature of the disorder and how the manifestations of the disorder can change as the child ages.
