WP1: Therapy for Children
Greta Cox
A Guide To Therapy: Why Children Need It
When I was growing up, I loved the number seven. I put it on every soccer, basketball, and softball jersey, and it marked the beginning of a new year of my life (February 7th is my birthday). Though when I turned ten years old, seven became my enemy. I was diagnosed with Obsessive Compulsive Disorder, an illness affecting the way my brain functioned and took control of my thoughts. When I was ten years old, my OCD manifested in a four hour night routine, involving stepping on tiles on the bathroom floor in a certain order and doing everything at a time on the clock that had a seven in it (9:37pm,10:07pm, etc.). If I misstepped or didn’t time things out perfectly, my body tensed up and I would sob uncontrollably. It was like my mind was taking over every part of my body. I felt like I was being swallowed whole by my own brain. My night routine and daily intrusive thoughts felt like a monster taking over my life. Entering Cognitive Behavioral Therapy at ten years old was what I needed to function as a pre-teenager and beyond. Therapy at a young age can be necessary for a child to live a fulfilling life.
Mental health disorders in children ages three to seventeen are incredibly common and can affect how a child learns, behaves, and handles their emotions (CDC). Many children begin developing mental health issues such as ADHD, OCD, or other anxiety disorders at a young age and when left untreated, can negatively impact every aspect of their day. My OCD first introduced itself when I was in sixth grade and had just begun middle school. According to the American Psychiatric Association, Obsessive Compulsive Disorder or “OCD” is “a disorder in which people have recurring, unwanted thoughts, ideas or sensations (obsessions). To get rid of the thoughts, they feel driven to do something repetitively (compulsions)” (Geller). My best friend of six years had left me for the popular group, and I felt isolated and not in control of my life, especially as a pre-teenager whose mind and body was actively changing, much to my dismay. I began to gain control in a precise night routine that began with doing everything at a certain time increment and stepping on tiles on the bathroom floor in a certain order. If my routine was not flawless, I would have to start the entire thing over. This resulted in a four hour long night routine (most children my age take about thirty minutes at most in their bedtime routine). My parents grew concerned and one night sat me down and told me they were taking me to a child psychologist. I looked at them as tears welled up in my eyes. I didn’t want to feel unwell or be psychoanalyzed by a stranger. However, a part of me very deep down knew I needed to go as maybe a stranger could help ward off my mind demons. So I went to a woman who was about as old as my grandmother, and she sat me down in a cold dimly lit room and asked me questions. She put me on Lexapro, an antianxiety and antidepressant medication, and diagnosed me with severe OCD. She also suggested I go to therapy which I began about once a week. The therapist was much younger, with a joyful warm energy and took me through cognitive behavioral exercises to slowly reduce my night routine activities and be able to respond when imperfections and mistakes came my way. In about a month, my night routine had already been cut down to an hour. My 20 mg of Lexapro and Cognitive Behavioral Therapy allowed me and my parents to breathe. I began enjoying life again.
Therapy gave me back my childhood, and it can do the same for those a similar age. However, therapy and mental health continues to be a taboo or stereotyped topic and one often avoided in necessary family discussions. Growing up with OCD, the common stereotype surrounding my particular diagnosis is “clean freak” which is a result of ignorance and lack of education in psychology. Mental health issues are not and should not be taboo for children. Many do not believe therapy for children is necessary or the child will outgrow any current issues they are facing. However, therapy for children can allow them to answer the questions “how are you feeling?” or “how did that make you feel?” which are often new feelings or emotions that children may have never faced before (Slate). Many assume therapy is just a couch and chair set up with a person laying down hopelessly with someone writing down what the patient says, but it can actually reshape and retrain a child’s thinking.
A specific type of therapy, Cognitive Behavior Therapy, is especially used on children and helpful for their perception and thinking. According to healthline, Cognitive Behavior Therapy or CBT involves a very structured approach to solving whatever issues the patient may be facing in a set number of appointments. This can include play therapy including various toys, modeling or acting out the desired behavior, and exposure which is a slow effort to expose the child to whatever is causing the anxiety or trigger (healthline). CBT can benefit a number of childhood disorders such as ADHD, anxiety and mood disorders, PTSD and trauma, and even those with anxiety on the autism spectrum. Healthline reports that data analysis shows that 60% of children who use CBT for anxiety disorders have shown a decrease in symptoms. When I went through CBT treatment as a sixth grader with my therapist, the main objective was challenging my irrational beliefs (What would happen if I didn’t go to sleep in time increments?) as well as at home exposure to decrease the time in which my night routine took to repeat. I slowly eliminated steps of my night routine including stepping on wood panels at specific times and only going to bed at a time that had 7 on the clock. I was sometimes faced with a tense and anxious body reaction but was supported by my parents’ reassurance that nothing bad would happen. My chemical imbalance in my brain became less apparent.
As shown through studies and my own personal experience, a childhood mental illness diagnosis and therapy can be the key to allowing a child to grow up and live a prosperous life. Childhood support through therapy can help several anxiety and mood disorders as well as child coping strategies. The next step is providing more free mental health resources so all children can be given the help they need as currently, therapy is incredibly expensive. I was lucky enough to have the family support and resources to get outside therapy, but many do not have the option to do so. Many children could get therapy resources at their own school which would greatly assist families financially, but schools, particularly elementary schools, have underfunded mental health programs. My hometown, Palos Verdes Estates, just outside of Los Angeles, did not even have a budget for mental health resources and counselors in all ten of their elementary schools. This needs to change. My story as well as many analyses have shown that therapy and an early diagnosis is often not a want, but a need.
Works Cited:
“Data and Statistics on Children’s Mental Health.” Centers for Disease Control and
Prevention, 8 Mar. 2023, www.cdc.gov/childrensmentalhealth/data.html.
Moyer, Melinda Wenner. “How Grown-Ups Feel Today about Their Childhood Therapy
Decades Ago.” Slate Magazine, Slate, 10 Feb. 2022,
slate.com/technology/2022/02/how-useful-is-child-therapy.html.
“Data and Statistics on Children’s Mental Health.” Centers for Disease Control and
Prevention, 8 Mar. 2023, www.cdc.gov/childrensmentalhealth/data.html.
“What Is Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder?” Psychiatry.Org — What Is
Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder?,
www.psychiatry.org/patients-families/obsessive-compulsive-disorder/what-is-obse
ssive-compulsive-disorder. Accessed 16 Sept. 2023.
