When you’re about to become a parent, you expect everything to be so wonderful and full of joy and bliss. Everyone tells you about the snuggles, the love you’ll experience, and all of the amazing things about being a new mom or dad. What they don’t tell you is all of the anxiety, fear, and panic you can feel – not to mention the intrusive, scary, unwelcome thoughts that come in out of nowhere and never seem to go away no matter what you do.

I discuss common obsessive and compulsive behaviors in children, including what’s developmentally appropriate vs what may be something more.

When a child has OCD, they will feel like they have to do things a certain way, or engage in some type of ritual, otherwise something bad might happen. That “something bad” might mean they would get sick, that they would get hurt, that someone else they love might get hurt, or something else – and sometimes, it just means that it wouldn’t feel okay and that, in and of itself, would cause anxiety.