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Dealing with toileting troubles is one of the most unappealing aspects of raising a child, especially when the challenges come with going number two. Encopresis, more commonly known as soiling, is a disorder where a child, age four or older, consistently poops in inappropriate places. Rather than using the toilet, a child with encopresis will eliminate in their underwear or on the floor instead of the toilet. For some children, the challenge can be constipation and for others, it may be anxiety or fear about pooping that causes them to hold it. Either way, holding in their poop for a long time results in a lack of control when their body can no longer do so. Overall, encopresis affects around 1.5 percent of young children, and is a manifestation of a complex interaction between the body and the experience of stress.

Potty training can feel like an insurmountable challenge for many parents and families. Daytime accidents and bed-wetting can be an uncomfortable inconvenience for both children and their caregivers. A certain amount of urinary accidents can be normal in early childhood, but when children are repeatedly peeing in their clothing or bed on accident beyond the age of five, they may have enuresis.

The following is an essay written by a 16-year-old girl who engaged in evidence-based exposure and response prevention treatment for anxiety and obsessive-compulsive disorder at the Center for Effective Therapy. She has since graduated from treatment and wrote this essay independently to destigmatize mental health for teens and spread the word about effective mental health care. She has graciously agreed to allow us to share her essay with our community, in the hopes of helping others who are experiencing similar challenges.

Kids and adults of all genders and ages can have OCD. The onset age of OCD is different for every individual, but we see the most common onset of symptoms during teenage or early adulthood years. Even so, no one can be “too young” or “too old” to be diagnosed with OCD, the primary factor in diagnosis is the presentation of symptoms and worries and whether they meet criteria at any age.

You may have heard people say, “Don’t mind me, I'm just so OCD”, as they clean their house or organize their books. In wider society, describing oneself or someone else as “OCD” is a way to convey that they like things to be organized and neat, or they will feel somewhat distressed. The label “OCD” has been co-opted by common language, but clinically, it describes a very distressing series of intrusive thoughts and compulsions that can take up a large portion of an individual’s time and energy.