Anxiety Disorders in Children Support Group
Childhood","This community is for parents and caregivers of children who exhibit signs of anxiety. Anxiety refers to a complex combination of negative emotions that includes fear, apprehension and worry, and is often accompanied by physical sensations such as palpitations, nausea, chest pain and/or shortness of breath."
My 9 year old daughter has recently been diagnosed with an anxiety disorder and a phobia, emetaphobia, the fear of vomiting. She has always been an shy and anxious child and would go through phases of different types of fears or anxieties, but that always seemed to be manageable with some reassurances or making some minor accomodations for her. But now, she seems to be in a constant state of anxiety and fear, mostly she fears that she will get sick and vomit, but this fear is crippling to her. She is having difficulites going to school, interacting with her friends, eating meals, visting family- the list goes on and on. As parents, my husband and I are trying to be understanding of her fears, even though they seem so irrational to us. We are seeing a child psychologist and have read many books and completed many anxiety workbooks with her, trying to learn and use coping skills. Unfortunately, none of this seems to be working. It is heartbreaking to see our little girl so overwhelmed and fearful of everyday life. We try to take one day at a time, but sometimes parenting a child with anxiety takes its toll and it all feels too overwheling and frustrating for us to handle. Our friends and family are trying to be supportive, but I do not think that they understanding the challenges and the frustrations we are dealing with. It is always so hard to know exactly what to do to help her. Right now, we are really focused on keeping her in school. She was recently ill with a flu (which caused her to vomit) and now she is terrified that she will get sick again. We have met with the school and they are being supportive, but it is such a challenge each day to convince her to go to school and actually get her there and leave her there. It is so hard when I have to leave her at school crying in the mornings becuase she is so fearful to be there. She does calm down and is able to participate in class for the most part, but has periods of anxiety throughout the day. This continues at home too. Just looking for some support and guidance.
After the med and other treatments didn't work, our ped referred us to a psych. I had everything typed up and documented of what was going on, how long, and things we had already tried. He started her on Zoloft and it has been a miracle drug for her! She had immediate help, even tho it actually takes a week or so to get into their system. Her teachers/school nurse/and my family could not believe the change.
We cancelled the therapy, as I did not think it was really helping. The therapist just didn't seem to hear what my dd was saying and the last session I sat in on, my dd cried thru the whole hour, and the therapist sat there and told her how she wasn't 'trying hard enough." We didn't go back after that, cuz frankly, I tell my daugher that for free, lol! I haven't ruled therapy out, tho, and if my dd starts having severe issues again, we will look for another therapist.
Over this past summer she did fine; she would have periodic PAs and we still couldn't really go out too much, but it was much, much better. Finally, she seemed like a normal child again and it had been so long since I felt that way. She could go swimming in the pool so that helped tremendously.
At the beginnig of this school year, we actually bumped up her Zoloft a bit after she had a tough time adjusting. Her school is awesome, great friends, great teachers, great principal--they are all on board to help her out. But it was still a bit rough, so we increased her dosage and that helped.
Right before Christmas, we dropped it back down (her choice). She has been at the lower dose for about a month now and it is going well. As of today, we can go into a grocery store (did I mention she could not handle a grocery store at all?? Walmart especially??). Restuarants are still touch-n-go; she doesn't have to eat and she can handle them much better now. School is fine most days. We haven't tried movies or skating, but we are going to work on skating this month. Their school has a monthly skating fundraiser, and we are going to try it out. At times, I was SOO afraid for my daughter--for now, for her future--and although she is not completely *healed*, I feel so much better about her future--I hope that makes sense!
Anyway, I totally feel for you and your daughter! I'll be praying for you and your family!!!! Anyways, not sure how this site works, but if you wanna PM with any questions I would be more than happy to share more of our experiences.
I am so sorry for what you are going through. We have a very similar story to yours. Although always somewhat sensitive, shy and having a few of what could be described as age typical fears, my DD was around 9 when she too experienced a similar uptick in her anxiety symptoms, also related to vomiting and getting sick. She actually felt sick from the anxiety so much that at first we thought something was physically wrong and the school nurse insisted that we 'get her some help'. She lost 5lb off her already small frame and the dr. had a whole bunch of tests run, only to reaffirm the GAD diagnosis. Unfortunately, the anxiety and fear over getting sick worsened into a brief period of OCD (compulsive handwashing) which was really scary. Thankfully therapy helped the OCD part subside pretty quickly. We have done mostly therapy over the years (she is now 12). We've done Cognitive Behavioral Therapy and are now on our 3rd therapist with varying results. She also has specific phobias sensory sensivities and now social anxiety disorder. Today at 12 she still has panic attacks over potential exposure to the 'stomach flu'. It has been a long journey. At times I thought she was better but then school would start and things would get worse again. I would recommend you might consider the following: 1. Medication...we are presently moving forward with this for our DD. Hindsight being 20/20 now that DD is 12 we are seeing a MAJOR social skills deficit in her that is a result of decreased self esteem due to the long term effects of years of up and down anxiety. Therapy has only been partially effective. 2. Present a report to your DDs school and push to secure a 504 plan with accomodations for your DDs GAD. It is important that as she moves from year to year that the various teachers/personel she interacts with will know that your child has a bonafide disability that affects her ability to learn and function in school. Our DD always had good grades but I never really had anything in writing with the school until last year when a teacher got strict/tough/school of hard knocks with her and I had to get something documented. Now, I've seen a much better response from the teachers and personnel, especially in the more uncontrolled environment of middle school. 3. Lower your expectations about friends and family understanding. Gradually I've shared less and less about the specific issues of my kids with others who's kids do not or never had those issues (including my parents). Frankly, I don't have the time/energy to explain the constant drama and then I'm never satisfied with the support or answer I get which either seems to trivialize the problem, seeks to find the 'cause' somehow implies I am not doing something right or enough. Better to stick with sympathetic professionals who see kids who have these kinds of issues every hour or other parents who 'get it'.