OCD Facts: What Is OCD
What Is OCD?
OCD is an anxiety disorder that has a neurobiological basis. It is not something children or adolescents choose to have. When OCD is untreated, young people do not have any control over how it affects them or how they react to it, much as children with untreated asthma cannot control an asthma attack. OCD is not a behavioral choice. Children with OCD have obsessions and compulsions that distress them significantly enough to interfere with daily functioning, schoolwork and/or relationships.
Read the clinical definition of OCD as applied to adults.
OCD appears about equally in boys and girls. While most often the disorder appears in adolescence or early adult years, there is growing awareness that OCD can begin in childhood. It has been diagnosed as early as three years of age. Mental health professionals report that, when symptoms begin in childhood, they may appear earlier in boys than in girls. While the onset of OCD in boys is reportedly seen most often between 5 and 8 years of age and girls are somewhat more likely to develop OCD in adolescence, the prevalence tends to equalize during adolescence. Onset also frequently occurs during college years.
How To Recognize the Symptoms of OCD in Children and Teens
OCD is diagnosed when obsessions and compulsions are time consuming, cause significant distress and interfere with daily functioning in school, social activities, family relationships or normal routines.
Neither parents nor children cause the characteristic symptoms of childhood OCD: “bad thoughts” or overwhelming fears, worries and rituals. Inside the brain of a child or teen with OCD, the fears or worries get “stuck” -- so the young person can’t stop thinking about them. They may also have feelings or urges to perform compulsions.
Some children have likened these thoughts to having a monster locked inside their head. It’s always there, and it’s always active, making bad thoughts happen. Older children and adolescents compare the thoughts or fears with “noise” inside their head -- a repeating mantra of nagging thoughts that are stronger than outside stimuli in most cases. Students with OCD may be unable to pay attention in class because their attention is riveted on the obsessive thoughts inside their heads.
These obsessions or urges/feelings may lead to great distress and, depending on the age of the child, may be hidden for a time or may be easily visible as the compulsions take more and more time out of the child’s life.
Sometimes the behavior can be confusing and, in many children, the obsessions and compulsions “shift” from one focus to another -- and can wax and wane over time. Generally, the compulsions must take up a lot of time (such as an hour or more each day or evening) to be considered OCD. And when the child’s compulsions, or rituals, are interrupted, the child may become upset, agitated or angry.
Because children and teens are in school for such a large amount of time each day, school personnel are in an excellent position to observe behavior and recognize symptoms. This can be an important step in helping the student get the help he or she needs. If the student is already in a treatment program, school personnel play an important role in the student’s recovery process.
Learn more about OCD symptoms.