Parenthood

Maybe your kid will wind up with ocd, maybe not. Good news is if you’re aware that you have it, you’ll know what to look out for if your child develops symptoms so you can get them help earlier on.

your concerns are valid. from what i understand, OCD itself isn’t necessarily genetic, but anxiety can be. i am the product of generations of anxiety disorders — from PTSD, GAD, and OCD. i have your same concerns. my advice would be to just check in with yourself further down the line and see if the concerns are still there. the thought of someone i love going through what i go through…i couldn’t take it. so, if there’s even a chance, i’m not risking it. not a huge loss though — i didn’t exactly win big in the genetic lottery. but, it’s a personal decision, between you and your partner. if you go to therapy, i would also try voicing these concerns to your therapist. they might be able to help you work through your concerns and understand them better

I just gave birth to my first child a little less then 6 months ago, obviously it’s way too early to know if he will have ocd but I definitely will make it known to him that it’s okay to have difficult thoughts and feelings and strategies to work through them! I’ve had ocd symptoms since I was a child and I think if you learn tools young it can really help to change the way you deal with your thoughts. I would suggest really really taking care of your mental health during and after pregnancy I’ve had almost debilitating anxiety since my son was born and it’s been extremely difficult. I wish I would have sought out help and worked on myself sooner so that I could get the most out of this time.

Is there less than a 50 percent chance developing it?