When Kids Feel Unreal: Managing Depersonalization in Child OCD and Anxiety

AT Parenting Survival Podcast: Parenting | Child Anxiety | Child OCD | Kids & Family

Natasha Daniels: Child Therapist, Child Anxiety and OCD Expert, Parenting Coach and Parent

Parenting, Ocd Therapy, Ocd In Children, Ocd, Anxiety, Child Anxiety, Child Ocd, Kids & Family, Mental Health, Education, Health & Fitness, Self-improvement

4.8 • 1.2K Ratings

🗓️ 17 June 2025

⏱️ 34 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Is your child saying things like:

I don’t feel real?

Is this a dream?

Am I dead?

Is this really happening?

They may be experiencing depersonalization, a common but often misunderstood symptom in children with OCD and anxiety.

In this episode, I break down what depersonalization looks like in kids with OCD and anxiety, why it happens, and—most importantly—how you can help. Whether it’s tied to panic, existential OCD, or chronic anxiety, understanding this experience is the first step in supporting your child through it.

You’ll learn:

What depersonalization feels like (from a child’s perspective)
Why kids with OCD and anxiety are more prone to it
Grounding tools that actually help
What to avoid saying or doing when it happens

Grounding resource: https://releasedpdr.com

***

This podcast episode is sponsored by NOCD. NOCD provides online OCD therapy in the US, UK, Australia and Canada. To schedule your free 15 minute consultation to see if NOCD is a right fit for you and your child, go to

https://go.treatmyocd.com/at_parenting

This podcast is for informational purposes only and should not be used to replace the guidance of a qualified professional.

Parents, do you need more support?

🌸 Here’s are resources I offer parents 👇🏻❤️

Online classes for parents raising kids with anxiety and OCD:

https://atparentingsurvivalschool.com

Join the AT Parenting Community (A membership designed to support parents raising kids with anxiety or OCD):

https://atparentingcommunity.com

Take one of my FREE webinars:

www.Natashadaniels.com/webinars

Check out my books:

www.Natashadaniels.com/books

🌸 Other social places I hang out:

http://www.facebook.com/ATparentingSurvival

http://www.pinterest.com/ATparentingSurvival

http://www.instagram.com/ATparentingSurvival

http://www.twitter.com/Parentingsurvival

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Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0	Welcome to the AT Parenting Survival Podcast, where you get help and guidance through the chaos of parenting a child with anxiety or OCD.
0:12.0	This show is for educational purposes and is not intended to replace the guidance of a qualified professional.
0:18.5	Here's your host, child therapist, Natasha Daniels. Well, hello there,
0:23.5	and welcome to another episode of the AT Parenting, Survementment. Today, I want to talk to you
0:29.1	about a very common thing that our kids with childhood, OCD, or anxiety struggle with, and that is managing the feelings of depersonalization
0:40.8	or de-realization. And I want to talk to you about what it is, why it's so common and how to
0:49.7	help our kids with these struggles. Before I get started, I do want to thank NoCD for sponsoring this episode.
0:55.5	NoCD offers affordable, effective, convenient therapy, and they're available in the U.S.
1:00.4	and outside the U.S. You can schedule your free 15-minute consultation to see if no CD
1:05.8	is a right fit for you and your child. Just go to treat myoced.com. That is treat myoced.com. I'll leave a link in the show
1:13.9	notes as well. If you are also interested in the AT parenting community, that is my in-depth
1:20.1	online member community, where we do weekly live classes, monthly support group calls for parents, kids, and teens. We have an app where
1:30.9	you can directly message me at any time when you're struggling, message other members,
1:35.3	and get that support. And plus, you get over $500 worth of my courses in my online school,
1:42.3	atyparenting survival school.com for free as a member.
1:46.2	You get free access to that in the app and on our member website. Our website, I mean our
1:51.0	website, our wait list is growing. And so we are most likely going to have a wait list only opening.
1:57.7	I will not advertise that. That goes only to the wait list. And so if you want to
2:01.8	get on the wait list, so you're notified, it's definitely a good time to do that because I'm seeing
2:06.3	it grow. So you can go to atyparentingcommunity.com and join the waitlist. And you and only you,
2:13.9	those of you that are on the wait list, will be notified when we do a quiet waitlist
2:17.8	only opening because we're not opening the community for another couple of months, but you can get in
	...

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