Growing Children

OCD (1x2)

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In this fascinating film, Laverne Antrobus explores the complicated and often misunderstood condition of obsessive compulsive disorder. Laverne reveals what is actually happening in the brains of children with OCD that makes them so different from other youngsters. She meets OCD sufferers, examines the causes of such a debilitating disorder and takes a look at the innovative methods being used to overcome it. She meets the parents whose lives have been overtaken by caring for their child and interviews the scientists investigating the causes. As Laverne learns about the illness, we get an amazing insight into the developing mind and how we all process day-to-day anxieties and stress. OCD is one of the most common anxiety disorders in children, affecting over 1 per cent of people in the UK. Sufferers have intrusive obsessive thoughts that can cause extreme anxiety which compels them to repeatedly perform compulsive behaviors aimed at reducing that anxiety. Symptoms can range broadly, something that Laverne discovers through visiting two different teenagers. Anna suffers from obsessive hand washing, something which is beginning to dominate her life more and more. In a powerful interview with Laverne we learn just how much control OCD has over her and the way she thinks. The next teenager that Laverne meets is Jonathan. In contrast to Anna his OCD is characterized by obsessive irrational thoughts in which he thinks he has harmed someone, even though it is something he has never done. Laverne embarks on a quest to discover why anxiety is part of human nature and what happens when it goes too far. At King's College London she conducts a test to measure her response to threats and the theory that anxiety has evolved as a defensive response. Laverne also confronts her own fear of spiders at an anxiety workshop where she is made to handle a tarantula. Laverne then examines the different way that brains of children with OCD actually develop. Why are they so over-anx