Development of OCD in Children Essay

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Anxiety and Obsessive-Compulsive Disorders

1) Describe your first experience with obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) (Experiences you had with the first person you diagnosed/first time you heard your child had obsessive-compulsive disorder/first time you remember your obsessive-compulsive disorder being a problem).

According to Mash and Wolfe (2015) obsessive-compulsive disorder involves disturbing and unwanted images, thoughts, or urges that will interfere with a child's mind causing a great deal of discomfort. Mark was having issues with dirt, which forced him to constantly keep washing his hands and cleaning his surroundings. This was quite strange for a child who was only 7 years old. When Mark visited a new place, he had trouble settling down as he feared there was too much dirt and germs. This would at time result in him starting to clean some spots.

2) How did you have to alter your everyday routine/routine of your child/suggestions you gave your patient and their family to help cope with _________________?

Mark's obsession was contamination and his compulsion involved cleaning. While most people would recommend that the child is kept away from his OCD triggers it is never the best strategy. Exposing Mark to his OCD triggers and encouraging him to resist the urge to clean will work wonders. For Mark this was slightly difficult since he would get traumatized. Therefore, we opted to expose him to his triggers in a less obvious manner and we conditioned him slowly. This allowed us to reduce his compulsion to clean. We also recommended that the family pays close attention to the child to ensure that he does not suppress his urges too much as this might have a rebound effect with increased symptoms.

3) What were some of the initial symptoms you noticed/your family noticed that your child/your patient/you may have had with ______________________, or some kind of issue?

The Symptoms that Mark showed were that he constantly kept wiping door handles, washing hands constantly, and brushing teeth with too much force. The constant washing rituals had to do with his fear of germs or coming into contact with dirt. When Mark's fear was triggered, he would become restless to a point of trying to clean the dirt himself. This made it hard for him to socialize with other children or even visit their homes.

4) How did your child/your patients/you act compared to their peers that did not have _____________________?

When compared to other children his age, Mark would get anxious and restless whenever his fears were triggered. It is clear that Mark is distressed as he loses his focus, and he cannot rest till he has done something about the area he considered to have dirt. Mark had a routine that involved him cleaning his hands, wiping surfaces, and brushing teeth in a certain way for a specified period of time. This was quite different from his peers who did not have the disorder.

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They would not be concerned with dirt and most of them found Mark to be weird.

5) What was used to treat or what was recommended to alleviate some of the effects of your child’s/your patient’s/your ______________________?

Cognitive-behavioral therapy was recommended for treating Mark's OCD. This had two components the first one being exposure and response prevention and…

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…order for treatment to be effective, it is vital that the child's specific OCD is established and their obsessions and compulsions clearly identified. This way therapy will be effective as it will be targeted towards the particular obsessions and compulsions for the child (Hirschtritt, Bloch, & Mathews, 2017). Cognitive-behavioral therapy has been established to be quite effective in treating and preventing remission of OCD. If the child is taken for treatment early, the chances of them having the disorder when they are adults is reduced. Cognitive-behavioral therapy aims to modify the child's patterns of thinking, behaviors, and beliefs that trigger their anxiety and obsessive-compulsive symptoms. Therapy will make use of education in order to promote the child's control over their symptoms. The chosen education will assist in exposing the myths that cause the child's OCD.

Medication therapies can also be prescribed for the child. However, medications alone are not effective in the treatment of OCD. Snyder, Kaiser, Warren, and Heller (2015) posits that antidepressants have been found to reduce the symptoms of OCD, which could be vital especially if the child is undergoing behavior therapy. Combining medications with therapy will be effective in modifying the child’s behavior and thoughts. With the aim of therapy being to expose the child to their fears, when the child is given the medication, they can easily be exposed to their fears without them becoming too anxious (Snyder et al., 2015). However, there might be instances that would require the child to be exposed to their fears without any medications. Cognitive-behavioral therapy aims to slowly and progressively expose the child to their obsessions and encourage them not to undertake their….....

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