NC for this.
DS is 10 and over the last few months is getting increasingly anxious about his health. He has had the mortality realisation, where he seems to now understand about death, and that we won't all be around forever. Nothing in particular has triggered the death realisation.
He has been under some stress recently with sport, and with school and looming exams. We have done and said what we can to try to minimise his concerns about both of these things. In the past week, things have come to a head and this week I had to bring him home from school as he was having a panic attack. He described being aware of his own heartbeat, palpitations, shaking, tight throat. He has totally cut out sugar as one attack was preceded by him eating sweets. He has had 3 or 4 instances like this in the last few months.
I have talked to him calmly about the flight fight response and how he is not ill as such, but stressed and that it is a vicious circle. We've discussed being calm, breathing deeply, and how he is in control of it, not it him. And that if he thinks about his heartbeat he will get paranoid and that it's better to let his body get on with its stuff whilst he focuses on something else.
I suppose I am looking for a few things by posting this. Has anyone else had a similar experience with a child of his age? And what suggestions would you have for what we can do to support him through this anxiety?
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Preteens
Anxiety - 10 yo DS
3 replies
Spurious · 16/05/2014 14:03
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