Up and Down the Worry Hill – A Children's Book

copyright 2000

The Obsessive Compulsive Foundation Conference was wonderful. It was encouraging to mingle with others struggling with OCD. Therapists and doctors shared their expertise in treating OCD. And this year, more than any other, there were opportunities for parents, children and teens to support and encourage each other.

I met several talented writers at the conference. One of those is Aureen Pinto Wagner, a clinical child psychologist who specializes in behavior therapy of OCD and other anxiety disorders in children. She wrote Up and Down the Worry Hill, A Children's Book about Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder and it's Treatment. This beautifully written and illustrated story is about Casey, a boy with OCD. He has problems with counting, washing and checking.

Casey has a new bicycle and his dad is helping him learn to ride his bike up Big Hill. Riding up Big Hill is hard work, but coasting down the hill is great fun. It is the reward for the hard work of pushing himself to ride up the hill, "little by little."

Casey's doctor tells him that using behavior therapy to fight OCD is like riding up a big "Worry Hill." It gets harder and harder, but once you get to the top of the Worry Hill it gets easier coming down.

Up and Down the Worry Hill is a book children will want to read again and again, not as a ritual, but because they will relate to Casey and his OCD. Illustrated by Paul A. Jutton, the beautiful black and white pictures would be fun to color. This is a book every child with OCD should have. It would also be a fantastic book to include in school libraries and classrooms. Ordering information can be found at http://www.lighthouse-press.com/PressRel...

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