ocd,anxiety in 6 year old, without therapist

[Vidula T]

Hi.. I’m not new here, I’m a member of this wonderful community for the past 4months. The initial month went great; I could learn a lot and was very confident. But for the last three months, I’m paying the membership fee monthly and doing nothing. I’m feeling extremely guilty for not making use of this chance(Im also struggling with depression). I don’t know where to start or how to implement these skills in our lives.

My daughter is now 6 years old. Her initial symptoms started when she was 3.8 years old. Everything was going fine, one day she accidentally bit a chilly and immediately threw up. Till then she is afraid of throwing up, even the word itself. I was completely unaware of Emetophobia or ocd that time, but I could sense some changes in her behaviour. Later she was not ready to sit in dining chairs, her study table etc. She feels disgusted seeing even some tiny black dirt in the bathroom tiles. I observed her and read many articles online to get a suspicion that she has probably ocd and anxiety.

When she was 4.3years old we first consulted a developmental paediatrician who asked us to do ASO test which came negative. She suggested us to consult a child psychologist. Till then we went to more than 7 therapists,no one helped her. Many of them are not ready to accept that a child can get anxiety. I asked about PANDAS, they said it’s not in India, it’s common in only US. We sought help for 2 years only to find that child mental health is not a thing in my country. You will get rehabilitation and treatments for autism or Down syndrome, but they are not even aware of anxiety and OCD. This therapy journey made a bad impact on my kid, even Im traumatized to seek further help.

My kid’s ocd and anxiety are not affecting severely with her daily life. But Im yet to find her core themes, also her main compulsion is reassurance seeking, Im not sure if Im just getting the tip of the iceberg. With this condition, is it possible to help her without formal therapy? Can I implement learning tools from these resources? Or will it be wasting my kids precious time? I already feel guilty of wasting 2years of her life.

How can I make use of these resources?

[Natasha]

Hi Vidula,
I’m sorry to hear about the lack of support where you live. It can be hard as well when you have your own depression. Many members are in a similar boat in this community and don’t have access to care for anxiety/OCD. You can teach your daughter the skills directly if you have the ability. The first step is to get the help you need for your depression. Often doing simple things can be a struggle when we are depressed, let alone helping others.

I’m happy to support you one step at a time here in the forums. I would recommend, when you are ready, to take the OCD course you have free access to as a member (if you haven’t yet). https://atparentingcommunity.com/online-classes/

Disgust is an OCD theme. The core fear is really just about feeling like you can’t handle the feeling of disgust. I am wondering if that is what is going on with the tiles.

[Author]

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