Customer Reviews

What to Do When Your Brain Gets Stuck: A Kid's Guide to Overcoming OCD (What-to-Do Guides for Kids)

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This has been a great book for my 13 year old son, who has OCD, along with autism. There is a very helpful analogy comparing dealing with obsessive thoughts with entering a movie theater--just like sometimes at first the theater's air conditioning is too cold or the sound is too loud, after a while, we get used to it. In the same way, if the child waits out the anxious thought, it too will go away, as he "gets used to it". I don't often write reviews, but this book was so helpful that I wanted to make sure I recommended it to those who have children struggling with OCD.

My Son is 7 years old and was diagnosed with OCD at 4. We have been waiting until he was old enough to explain OCD - recently we started telling him about "Stuck Thoughts" but he wasn't getting it. I then found "What to do when your Brain gets stuck" & our lives have changed dramatically overnight.
Our son loves this book, and he now knows he has OCD. Because of Dr. Huebner's book our son thinks of OCD as an adventure that he gets to be involved in (the book is an child participation as well as reading)and we are seeing huge progress. I recommend this book - our lives have changed completely and as a mother I can't thank Dr. Huebner enough.

I have a son who has been struggling with OCD symptoms for years. Previous meds and therapy helped a little. Reading this book, in conjunction with reviewing it with his qualified therapist, has made a monumental difference. For the first time, he feels empowered enough to control symptoms that previously controlled him. I highly recommend this book to all parents, as well as therapists, who are trying to help children tormented by OCD symptoms.

My daughter has Tourette's, which has both an OCD component and an anxiety/worry component to the disorder (as well as other aspects). We first purchased from this author the book on Worry and used it during her sessions aloud with her psychologist. It was WONDERFUL and really helped her UNDERSTAND the worry bully, which is so important once kids reach an age of concrete understanding. But when we saw that the same author had written a book on OCD, we were VERY excited to take it to our daughters sessions and begin work right away! The wording in the book is absolutely perfect for the older child and preteen age group in a way that I've not seen written before. There are many resources for parents, and several resources for very young (5 year old) kids, and many resources for older teens. But this was an age group that didn't have many resources to begin their own self-understanding of what was going on with their own thoughts and bodies in relationship to OCD and then what to do about it. This book taught ME so much about this also!!! And also how to word it and THEN HELP my daughter. The psychologist had not received information flyers about these books and so she is now recommending this author's books to other families in her practice. I highly recommend this book for any parent and child with Tourettes with and OCD component or OCD alone. Please let me know what you think also! Angie E.

My daughter is 7 and was diagnosed with OCD in Aug. This book is fantastic!!! It is full of great tools to fight OCD. The book is interactive and kid friendly. The concepts are easy for kids to understand. This book is great for parents who need something that can help free their children from OCD. We did the work book together, a little at a time,and we also got help from a therapist. The therapist mainly supported what we did in the work book, and helped reinforce the techniques and information we learned. My daughter is free from OCD thanks to this book, and a great and caring therapist. This book is a must for any parent, and child facing OCD. Forget all the other books and order this one.

I bought this and two other books in the series for my 13yo daughter who has Aspergers and OCD... and diabetes... and Celiac Disease. Because of her various issues, my daughter has developed a fear of germs and gluten. It is extreme. (The reality is that gluten can only harm her if she puts it in her mouth or inhales it, like if she were around poofing floor.) For example, envelopes have gluten, therefore she is afraid of envelopes. Our outside doorknob may have gluten on it (from when we enter the house, before we all wash our hands), so you should see the contortions when she walks out the front door, trying to stay as far away from the doorknob as possible.

We started reading this book. Then all three of the books disappeared from the living room. My daughter liked these books so much that she actually read and reread them on her own in her room! We are still methodically going through them together, but that she enjoys additionally reading them on her own says something about their child-friendly content. The pages are very interactive, with a good deal of writing and drawing to be done.

Anyway, when we were about halfway through the book, my daughter announced that she was going to stand around holding the doorknob. And she wanted to tackle mail! I discussed going outside, on her own, to go and get the mail. The next day she did it!! This was an enormous achievement for her. You understand, she had to touch the doorknob to open the door, go to the mailbox, touch and hold all the mail/envelopes, and then face down the doorknob again. She told OCD off and did it with no problems whatsoever. Then she went and washed her hands.

I know it's just a first step, but it's a giant leap for her. From now on, she'll be checking the mail every day. And all because of this book. My daughter has been in therapy for a year. She took the largest leap to date because of this book.

I read this book with my nine-year-old child in one afternoon. We saw immediate results. Her OCD symptoms were relatively mild to moderate, but we saw a dramatic decrease in OCDs immediately. It was as if the book gave her permission to take control of a situation that she felt was out of her control. She was instantly transformed back into our happy, cheerful and talkative child. She no longer sits in social settings repeating words in her head and missing the life going on around her. I HIGHLY recommend this book. I wish our physician had given it to us two years ago. It is a condensed version of books written for adults and parents. I even recommend it for adults struggling with anxiety and OCD.

I thought this was a great book for kids and teens with OCD. I am a therapist and I will recommend it to all my clients with OCD.

This book is just what I needed to reach my youngest OCD clients. It along with John Marsh's OCD books are the perfect combination for a therapist.

I can't say enough good things about this book. The first day I read the first 8 chapters to my 5 year old who suffers from a fear of germs and poison (always washing her hands). After the first few pages she was so relieved to learn that so many kids suffer from OCD that they actually have books about it. She answered the questions and drew pictures for the various exercises with great enthusiasm. The more we read the more excited she became. She was ready to fight OCD. During dinner that evening she stopped eating and stared at her fork in fear and said the OCD monster was worrying her again. It was making her think there was poison on her fork. These episodes usually end in a total melt down. I asked her what could she do to "boss back" the OCD? She stared at her fork a moment longer, set it on the table, and started eating brocolli with her fingers! I was holding back the tears of joy.
It has now been a week and we are also reading What to Do When You Worry Too Much: A Kid's Guide to Overcoming Anxiety (What to Do Guides for Kids)
She made the connection on her own between the OCD and the worrying. Both books have been a blessing to us. On a rough day (which isn't anything like a rough day used to be) we reread the chapters we have already covered. This seems to give my daughter a boost of confidence and has her raring to tackle OCD again the next day. She can not wait to visit her therapist again so she can tell her what a good job she is doing "bossing back" the OCD.
If your child is suffering from OCD this book is a must. It has changed our life in a very short period of time.