Children Who Suffer from Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder Three Times More Likely to be Bullied
“One of the things we have noticed working with many kids with OCD is that peer relations are extremely impaired,” said Eric Storch, Ph.D, a U of Florida assistant professor of psychiatry and pediatrics. “Kids target kids who are different. Kids with OCD sometimes exhibit behaviors that peers simply don’t understand.” Parents should be alert to this and make it part of their discussions with school personnel about OCD.
Bullies relay messages to already-sensitive obsessive-compulsive children that they are inherently flawed. Repetitive unwanted thoughts, a core feature of OCD, magnify these false beliefs. Further, the more that an individual has a thought, the more powerful the thought becomes. For OCD victims, this creates a seemingly endless cycle of worry and anxiety.
