What to Do When Your Brain Gets Stuck: A Kid's Guide to Overcoming OCD

I am a therapist specializing in OCD treatment. I am one of the few in our area who will treat children. The children that I have shared this book with are happy to recognize their own "stuck" thoughts in the illustrated pages. I have had adults purchase the book as well because it simplifies and clarifies an oftentimes misunderstood and debilitating disorder. I especially love how the OCD monster is pictures as a furry little creature with bad teeth and a top hat. He peeks around chairs, hides out, gorges on candy bars, and generally makes life miserable for kids with OCD. But when a child challenges the monster, there is an illustration of him jumping in the air in terror himself, as now a child is empowered and talks back to the monster. This change in behavior rattles the monster and he retreats because the child is no longer playing by the monster's rules. I actually had a 10 year old client get a monster doll to place in another chair and talk to.This book visually is appealing and its text simplifies for young and old that the tricks of the OCD monster can be foiled with cognitive behavioral therapy. It's a good workbook because children can draw in it and answer questions. I highly recommend this book, in fact, I think its my favorite of all the many books on OCD that I have collected. Of course, my hero Fred Penzel cannot be topped with the incredible information and examples shared in his book, and Jonathan Grayson's is full of beneficial information as well. Don't forget Bruce Hyman and Cherry Pedrick with the OCD workbook, another outstanding reference and a way for an OCD sufferer without qualified therapists in the area where he or she lives, to do self work on ERP in order to talk back to the monster and regain freedom in life.

According to statistics, OCD in children is more prevalent than most realize. After my 13 year old son was diagnosed with OCD a year ago, I purchased this book for him. It seemed juvenile at the time but proved to be quite valuable in helping him understand he's not alone and that his symptoms started at a younger age than he realized because he could not put his symptoms into words at such a young age. After medication and therapy, he became symptom-free in less than 6 months.Now, my 11 year old daughter has just been diagnosed with OCD a month ago - almost a year ago to the day as my son. We already know that OCD is hereditary. I immediately purchased this book again for my daughter this time. She finds it very helpful and loves doing the exercises in the book. She feels like the book knows exactly what she is going through and helps explain it to her in simple enough terms that she "gets it" but not too simple that it's boring. My daughter's psychiatrist has her using this book as part of her therapy. My daughter works in this book every day to help her push past the confusion and help her on the road to recovery. We are hopeful that this book, along with medication and therapy, that she too will be symptom-free in no time just like her brother. The psychiatrist took the title of the book and is now suggesting the purchase of this book to all of her patients diagnosed with OCD. It really is a helpful tool!

My daughter has Tourette's, which has both an OCD component and an anxiety/worry component to the disorder (as well as other aspects). We first purchased from this author the book on Worry and used it during her sessions aloud with her psychologist. It was WONDERFUL and really helped her UNDERSTAND the worry bully, which is so important once kids reach an age of concrete understanding. But when we saw that the same author had written a book on OCD, we were VERY excited to take it to our daughters sessions and begin work right away! The wording in the book is absolutely perfect for the older child and preteen age group in a way that I've not seen written before. There are many resources for parents, and several resources for very young (5 year old) kids, and many resources for older teens. But this was an age group that didn't have many resources to begin their own self-understanding of what was going on with their own thoughts and bodies in relationship to OCD and then what to do about it. This book taught ME so much about this also!!! And also how to word it and THEN HELP my daughter. The psychologist had not received information flyers about these books and so she is now recommending this author's books to other families in her practice. I highly recommend this book for any parent and child with Tourettes with and OCD component or OCD alone. Please let me know what you think also! Angie E.

I purchased this book because my 12 year old had OCD behaviors. Shortly after we got the book our daughter was diagnosed with PANDAS. This book does not have all the answers for parents, but it is not written for us. It is written for the child. My only problem with the book is that my daughter or rather her OCD is easily influenced. The doctor describe how he had patients who washed their hands 50 times. We had a few days of hand washing incidents, but luckily it didn't materialize too much. I put tabs on pages in the book to indicate what I should skip over so as not to influence her OCD. It was hard getting her to work in it initially only because it is very hard to resist OCD, and she simply didn't want to do the work. (She refused to go to a therapist.) She likes to draw, so the pages that ask for the child to write a list or draw is appealing to her. This book is not perfect, but I know of nothing else of this format, and it is working for us. That is all that counts, which is why I gave it five stars. This book is short, appealing to a child, and easy to use. Plus it doesn't have any sexual content. It states that it is for children up to 12 years, but I think depending on the child an older one could benefit from it too.

This is a good book to simplify the concept of OCD for your child. Even though it focuses on some of the more common forms of OCD and didn't specifically target my child's compulsions/rituals, it helped explain a lot about OCD for her. A great starting point for kids to start taking control of their OCD. She's 10 and recently diagnosed. I've caught her re-reading through this workbook and am hoping she starts practicing "Talking Back" to her OCD soon.

Love love love this book. I would give it ten stars. I recommend it to everyone to at least try. I realize it will not take care of all ocd situations, as other reviewers have mentioned. I have never dealt with ocd so when my four year old son started exhibiting symptoms I had no idea where to turn. Someone recommended this book. We went chapter by chapter, one on one and I made sure he understood everything in the book. It literally changed him! We no longer have two hour screaming sessions because things aren't "quite right". With help at first, he was able to identify ocd, and soon after on his own. We called ocd "Mr. Bossy". It was amazing. Now when his shoes are not quite right in the morning, he simply says "these aren't quite right. That's okay, that's just mr. Bossy". Then he just goes on with getting ready.... what?!?! For those of you who have been here, that's huge! Although occasionally Mr. Bossy shows up on occasion, he is much easier delt with. I have my sweet boy back, who feels impowered. Thank you. This book was a life saver for all of us!I love how it's a workbook style, you have places to draw pictures, or write your own thoughts down so it can truly be catered to you! Very simply written, as I have said my four year old, with guidance, was able to understand.

Our sons psychologist recommended this book. We used it int therapy and at home. This resources combined with our amazing psychologist has literally changed our lives. All praises to God!

This is the best OCD book ever and not just for kids. When my daughter developed OCD suddenly, we urgently wanted books for our whole family. We read this book first with my daughter and it explained OCD in such a wonderful way as to really understand the causes, and provided good tools to try to manage/overcome the compulsions. My wife and I started using the examples in the book that night when our daughter would have her episodes. They seemed to be the only rational ideas we could give her without making her get more upset. I still can't get her to name the little furry OCD monster though. :)When I started reading the three other adult books on OCD, most of it was filled with so much unnecessary detail and tried to keep things so general, or incorporate so many different types of OCD, that they were difficult to read and understand. I am educated (Master's Degree), so it is definitely the way the books were written and not that they are just above my reading and comprehension level.Our whole family would highly recommend this book to adults, children, relatives, and basically anyone looking to understand OCD.

Ein extrem gutes und hilfreiches Buch! Es hilft meiner 11-jährigen Tochter sehr. Ich bin den Autoren sehr dankbar.

The best book to work against OCD

Great workbook and easy to go through, with lots of helpful tips and exercises.

A must have resource for every clinician and every parent who is working with a young person experiencing OCD! Easy to understand but evidence based language and ERP approach for managing OCD with great worksheets that kids really ‘get’.

Great tips for managing OCD, designed for kids but just as applicable to adults. Lots of good tips and tricks in straightforward language.