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Resource Guide Brochure for Bipolar Disorder and Depressive Disorders

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Resource Guide Brochure for Bipolar Disorder and Depressive Disorders

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L. Weber - Dysfunctional Behavior Resource Guide Brochure

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Obsessive compulsive disorder (OCD) is a disorder of the brain and behavior that often begins in childhood. OCD causes severe anxiety in those affected. OCD involves both obsessions and compulsions that take a lot of time and get in the way of important activities, such as school and extracurricular activities, developing friendships, and self-care.

Obsessions are intrusive and unwanted thoughts, images, or urges that occur over and over again and feel outside of the child's control. These obsessions are unpleasant for the child and typically cause a lot of worry, anxiety, and distress.

Common obsessions may include:

Worrying about germs, getting sick, or dying.

Extreme fears about bad things happening or doing something wrong.

Feeling that things have to be "just right."

Disturbing and unwanted thoughts or images about hurting others.

Disturbing and unwanted thoughts or images of a sexual nature.

Compulsions (also referred to as rituals) are behaviors the child feels he or she "must do" with the intention of getting rid of the upsetting feelings caused by the obsessions. A child may also believe that engaging in these compulsions will somehow prevent bad things from happening.

Common compulsions may involve:

Excessive checking (re-checking that the door is locked, that the oven is off).

Excessive washing and/or cleaning.

Repeating actions until they are "just right" or starting things over again.

Ordering or arranging things.

Mental compulsions (excessive praying, mental reviewing).

Frequent confessing or apologizing.

Saying lucky words or numbers.

Excessive reassurance seeking (e.g., always asking, "Are you sure I'm going to be okay?").

In general, OCD is diagnosed when these obsessions and compulsions become so time-consuming that they negatively interfere with the child's daily life. Typically, the obsessions and compulsions become gradually more severe over time until they get to this point.

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Obsessive compulsive disorder (OCD) is a disorder of the brain and behavior that often begins in childhood. OCD causes severe anxiety in children affected. OCD involves both obsessions and compulsions that take a lot of time and get in the way of important childhood activities, such as school and extracurricular activities, developing friendships, and self-care.

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Quick Guide to Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder

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Quick Guide to Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder

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Schizophrenia In Children

No. 49; Reviewed October 2018

Schizophrenia is a serious psychiatric illness that causes changes in thinking, feelings, and unusual or strange behavior. It is uncommon in children and hard to recognize in its early phases. Symptoms that are more prominent may be noted in adolescents and young adults. The cause of schizophrenia is not known. Current research suggests a combination of brain changes, biochemical causes, genetic and environmental factors. Early diagnosis and medical treatment are important. Schizophrenia is a life-long disease that can be controlled but not cured.

The symptoms and behavior of children and adolescents with schizophrenia may be different from those of adults with this illness. The following symptoms and behaviors can occur in children or adolescents with schizophrenia:

seeing things and hearing voices which are not real (hallucinations)

odd and eccentric behavior and/or speech

unusual or bizarre thoughts and ideas

confusing television and dreams from reality

confused thinking

new academic problems

extreme moodiness

personality changes

ideas that people are out to get them or talking about them (paranoia)

severe anxiety and fearfulness

difficulty relating to peers and/or keeping friends

withdrawal and increased isolation

worsening personal grooming

The behavior of children with schizophrenia may change slowly over time. For example, children who used to enjoy relationships with others may start to become more shy or withdrawn and seem to be in their own world. Sometimes youngsters will begin talking about strange fears and ideas. They may start to say things that do not make sense. These early symptoms and problems may first be noticed by the child's teachers. Children with these symptoms must have a complete evaluation. Parents should ask their family physician or pediatrician to refer them to a child and adolescent psychiatrist, who is specifically trained and skilled at evaluating, diagnosing, and treating children with schizophrenia. Treating children with schizophrenia can involve a combination of medication, individual therapy, and family therapy, and specialized programs (school, activities, etc.) are often necessary. Psychiatric medication can be helpful for many of the symptoms of the illness. These medications require careful monitoring by a psychiatrist (preferably a child and adolescent psychiatrist).

An experienced child and adolescent psychiatrist should be able to differentiate changes in thinking, feelings, and unusual behavior that could be due to a person's or their families' cultural belief system versus changes caused by a mental illness. Families should feel comfortable discussing these beliefs with their mental health providers; for example, some cultures believe they can communicate with deceased individuals, and so on. Please let your doctor know if these or other beliefs are part of your family's belief and cultural structure.

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Schizophrenia In Children No. 49; Reviewed October 2018 Schizophrenia is a serious psychiatric illness that causes changes in thinking, feelings, and unusual or strange behavior. It is uncommon in children and hard to recognize in its early phases. Symptoms that are more prominent may be noted in adolescents and young adults.

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Children and teenagers also may have depression, as well.

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Anxiety in school is a widespread problem at every grade level.

Research shows that up to 25% of students struggle with clinical anxiety which can significantly impact a student's ability to learn and perform up to their capacity.
Anxious students may have:

high absenteeism rates

difficulty processing and retrieving information

sleep deprivation

distributive behaviors in class

fractured relationships with peers and teachers

irregular homework completion and classroom participation

complaints of physical ailments

Because anxiety levels fluctuate throughout the day and from day to day, difficulties are often unpredictable and inconsistent. In other words, sometimes a student struggles in a particular situation and sometimes they don't. This confuses and frustrates teachers, parents, and students. Another complicating factor is that school-based anxiety looks like many different things, including ADHD, anger, shyness, disorganization, and/or apathy. As a result, anxiety in school often goes unrecognized and, thus, unmanaged.

Based on 1,000 responses to a recent International OCD Foundation (IOCDF) survey, school personnel are looking for help on how to manage this often-debilitating problem. To meet that need, the IOCDF is developing an innovative program called Anxiety in the Classroom. The website provides useful information, resources, and materials about anxiety and OCD as they relate to the classroom, including tips on developing an effective accommodation plan for the anxious student.

There are many moving parts to a comprehensive plan aimed at helping a student manage their school anxiety, but in my experience, one of the most fundamental is effective communication between school and home. Sharing information and collaborative problem solving throughout the entire process is essential. Otherwise, misunderstandings and inconsistencies are bound to occur.

Recently, I treated a high school student who struggled with social anxiety and perfectionism. When we started working together, she was overwhelmed with missed assignments and felt stuck in her attempts to get help. As a result, she frequently missed school because she "didn't feel well," which only exacerbated the problem. When she was in class, she doodled to cope and refused to participate. Most of her teachers avoided her and her parents thought she simply had a bad attitude.

When the full extent of the problem became clear, I called a meeting with my student, her school counselor, her parents, and several of her teachers. My first task was to get all parties to agree that my student's challenges in school was a mental health problem and not an attitude or behavioral problem. Her parents believed that she simply needed to "just do the work" and the school believed that any accommodations would be an unhelpful crutch.

I set about getting consensus by educating everyone about anxiety: how prevalent it is in classrooms, how it manifests in school, and how it effectively shuts down the brain. I also took great care to demonstrate how my student's behaviors fit this pattern, using many concrete examples. My student elaborated on all the above, which was very helpful because it was the first time that most of her teachers heard her talk about her experience with anxiety. Finally, I assured everyone that the accommodations on the 504 plan would be short lived because the expectation was that my student would be learning how to manage these situations more independently over time.

Once we established that anxiety was the problem and I had "buy in" from all parties, we started the process of developing a 504 plan, created an interim program that allowed her to start to make up her work, and kept in regular contact as the plan was being put into effect. We had established a comprehensive and proactive plan to deal with familiar patterns and problems instead of waiting until a crisis occurred to intervene. This reduced everyone's anxiety!

Large assignments and long photography projects were particularly difficult for my student. She would get overwhelmed with possibilities and confused about where to start and what to do. Complicating matters even more, she was very reluctant to approach her teachers for help because she didn't want to be a bother and felt she should be able to do it on her own.

Because my student was struggling with decision making, organization, and procrastination and not the academic material, the plan we developed centered on improving student/teacher communication. It included specific times to meet and goals for each meeting. For example, the student and teacher would meet when a large assignment was given in order to create an outline and set deadlines for the smaller parts of the assignment. In session with my student, I monitored her progress meeting these smaller deadlines and communicated with her school counselor as needed.

Having established good communication amongst all parties made it easy to adjust the plan as necessary. For example, when my student returned to school after having been sick for several days, she was overwhelmed with missed work and vulnerable to engaging in old, ineffective patterns of behavior (avoidance). Within a day, I emailed her school counselor who then coordinated with her teachers to develop a manageable plan for missed work, including specific deadlines and scheduled check-ins.

Plans like these helps anxious students break through their avoidance patterns and acquire experience managing difficult triggers in a more effective way. As they build more successful habits and coping strategies, accommodations are faded out. At this point, my student is much less anxious when asking her teachers for assistance or clarification, therefore her school counselor and I are rarely involved in helping her manage these interactions.

I am pleased to report that my student, who at one point was so burnt out on academics that she couldn't fathom another four years in school, is now a senior, recently received a glowing first term report card, and is excitedly applying to college.
For more information and resources to help with anxiety and OCD in school, visit Anxiety in the Classroom.
Provide Feedback for Parent Resources!
The IOCDF is looking for feedback from parents to help build additional resources for the Anxiety in the Classroom website. To provide feedback, please take this short survey.

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Anxiety in school is a widespread problem at every grade level. Research shows that up to 25% of students struggle with clinical anxiety which can significantly impact a student's ability to learn and perform up to their capacity.

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Recent research on Conduct Disorder has been very promising. For example, research has shown that most children and adolescents with conduct disorder do not grow up to have behavioral problems or problems with the law as adults; most of these youth do well as adults, both socially and occupationally. Researchers are also gaining a better understanding of the causes of conduct disorder, as well as aggressive behavior more generally. Conduct disorder has both genetic and environmental components. That is, although the disorder is more common among the children of adults who themselves exhibited conduct problems when they were young, there are many other factors which researchers believe contribute to the development of the disorder. For example, youth with conduct disorder appear to have deficits in processing social information or social cues, and some may have been rejected by peers as young children.

Despite early reports that treatment for this disorder is ineffective, several recent reviews of the literature have identified promising approaches treating children and adolescents with conduct disorder. The most successful approaches intervene as early as possible, are structured and intensive, and address the multiple contexts in which children exhibit problem behavior, including the family, school, and community. Examples of effective treatment approaches include functional family therapy, multi-systemic therapy, and cognitive behavioral approaches which focus on building skills such as anger management. Pharmacological intervention alone is not sufficient for the treatment of conduct disorder.

Conduct disorder tends to co-occur with a number of other emotional and behavioral disorders of childhood, particularly Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) and Mood Disorders (such as depression). Co-occurring conduct disorder and substance abuse problems must be treated in an integrated, holistic fashion.

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Recent research on Conduct Disorder has been very promising. For example, research has shown that most children and adolescents with conduct disorder do not grow up to have behavioral problems or problems with the law as adults; most of these youth do well as adults, both socially and occupationally.

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When a student has a classic learning disability (for example, dyslexia), the inability to read fluently is consistent across time. It doesn't matter what day, time, or class it is, or which teacher is teaching. Such students' inability to match letters to the sounds those letters make is fixed. However, if a student has anxiety, he or she may perform differently from day to day, or even class to class. In other words, for students with anxiety, the "can't do's" are unpredictable, and this is because anxiety is influenced by many different factors.
For example, if a child has emetophobia (a phobia of vomit), he or she might not experience any anxiety, and thus function well, until something triggers his/her fear, such as proximity to a sick classmate, over-hearing someone talk about vomit, or feeling nauseous. Once anxious, the student may not be able to pay attention in class, participate in class discussions, or perform well on assessments. Unless the child discloses what is going on, the teacher will have no idea why the student's performance has suffered, and, as a result, may misinterpret the student's difficulty as a lack of motivation or effort.

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What to Look For in the Classroom | Anxiety In The Classroom

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When a student has a classic learning disability (for example, dyslexia), the inability to read fluently is consistent across time. It doesn't matter what day, time, or class it is, or which teacher is teaching. Such students' inability to match letters to the sounds those letters make is fixed.

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Alleviating Anxiety Through School Counseling Interventions

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Alleviating Anxiety Through School Counseling Interventions

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Alleviating Anxiety Through School Counseling Interventions

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If unaddressed, childhood and adolescent anxiety can have a lasting negative impact on students'...

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Student Support Resources for Texas School Counselors

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Student Support Resources for Texas School Counselors

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Student Supports encompass a wide variety of interventions, activities and practices that schools can implement to address the non-academic needs that often pose a barrier to students' learning. This work is grounded in the understanding that educational success is directly impacted by factors both within and outside of the classroom and that the needs of the "whole child" must be met to maximize the effectiveness of academic instruction.

Student Supports recognizes that schools alone may not be equipped to address the variety and depth of students' needs and should actively partner in a coordinated and integrated manner with community providers and other resources. This may include ensuring students' basic needs are met, supporting students to feel physically and psychologically safe, and providing an array of interventions that allow students to focus on learning.

Resources

Mental Health Resources for Educators and Schools: The Texas School Health Advisory Committee (TSHAC) has developed this document to identify relevant resources for school personnel to accomplish the training of staff required by the Health and Safety Code and Texas Education Code.

Mental Health Technology Transfer Center Network: A network dedicated to addressing the issues that impact access and provision of mental health services in schools across the United States.

Meadows Mental Health Policy Institute: Provides independent, nonpartisan, data-driven, and trusted policy and program guidance that creates systemic changes so all Texans can obtain effective, efficient behavioral health care when and where they need it.

National Dropout Prevention Center: Dedicated to increasing graduation rates through research and evidence-based solutions.

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Student Supports encompass a wide variety of interventions, activities and practices that schools can implement to address the non-academic needs that often pose a barrier to students' learning. This work is grounded in the understanding that educational success is directly impacted by factors both within and outside of the classroom and that the needs of the "whole child" must be met to maximize the effectiveness of academic instruction.