Thoughts From NCBHS

Questions to Ask Yourself

There are a number of factors in determining the appropriateness of treatment.

1. Is this emotional distress disrupting daily functioning, threatening to overwhelm the child or interfering with age-appropriate emotional development?

For example, parental divorce is an emotionally upsetting experience that children react to in a variety of ways. If a child's reaction lasts longer than a month and is prevalent in other settings besides home, this indicates that normal functioning has become disrupted.

OCD is an anxiety disorder.  It is characterized by having obsessive thoughts and or compulsions. Obsessions can be persistent ideas, images, thoughts or impulses that cause great discomfort and excessive worry and anxiety. Compulsions are repetitive behaviors or mental acts that are in response to the obsessive thoughts.  These repetitive acts are done to relieve or prevent anxiety and severely affect someone’s ability to function on a daily basis.  Some symptoms of Obsessive Compulsive Disorder:

 Excessive, uncontrollable, illogical fear or preoccupation with

1 in 4 school aged children have experienced a traumatic event. Childhood trauma is defined as a single event or prolonged exposure to traumatic experiences that overwhelm a child’s ability to cope. (National Child Trauma Stress Network, 2008.)