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

Great and Amazing book

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

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.

One evening my normally happy 10 year old son came down stairs after being in bed for 15 minutes in floods of tears saying his mind was telling him to keep checking under his bed, check the light, check his water glass and it was screaming at him to do it. He was distraught, it wouldn't shut up and we had no idea what to do. He'd be clutching his head in tears. He said it had been going on for several months. After a terrible few days and some research we found this book, along with a few others on Amazon including Talking Back to Ocd: The Program That Helps Kids and Teens Say "No Way" -- And Parents Say "Way to Go" . We decided my son had OCD and was very anxious. This book gives an excellent strategy for dealing with OCD. It is split into chapters each building on a strategy to deal with OCD. We did find that there were lots of suggestions about other types of OCD which our son didnt have and which we didn't want to plant seeds in his mind about so we were careful about how we read the book and what information he saw. The overall strategy of both books is the same and whilst OCD is tough, we found if you tackle it with these strategies and persevere then it will subside. This book definitely threw us a lifeline! Whilst this book was a great help, after a year or so we did have to seek professional help from a psychologist. We found the advice from a third party was invaluable, giving a clear path and strategy to deal with the problem. I would say to anyone with this sort of issue with their child the sooner you seek professional help the sooner you and the child will have the right toolkit to deal with the problem. The NHS did not help us it was just taking to long, so we found a private psycholgist. Not cheap but well worth the price to help our child. :-)

My 8 year old was recently diagnosed with OCD. I bought this book before he had been officially diagnosed, but held off using it with him until the assessment was complete. The examples and exercises in this book are fantastic, and work really well for both my son and I. In particular, he really 'gets it' that the OCD monster is 'throwing a tantrum' like a little kid, and if you let it get its way, it's just going to throw a bigger one next time. My son is now pointing out to me all of the times when he 'says no' to OCD, and I make sure to go out of my way to positively reinforce his efforts. We aren't even fully through the book yet and he's made a lot of progress. During the pandemic, I'm thankful that I have one resource I can use when therapy and counselling is unavailable.