Anxious child - has anyone used therapy?

[BoysRule]

My ds aged 6 has always suffered from anxiety. He is very scared (he doesn't really know of what - monsters, spiders etc) around the house and won't go in a room on his own. In addition he finds separation from me very hard - he doesn't want to attend friends birthday parties and playdates. He is very anxious about trying anything new - sports, clubs etc and doesn't want to do them.

We had rather hoped he would grow out of it but I have recently returned to work part time and it has (understandably) got a lot worse. He wants to be with me all of the time and whilst he used to go into school OK he now doesn't want to. He is crying and screaming and clinging to me. The fears around the house have also got worse.

We feel out of our depth in terms of helping him. It's heartbreaking to see him so stressed all of the time and I am wondering if he would benefit from professional help.

Has anyone had experience of using a child psychiatrist/psychologist/therapist and do you think this is the right route to follow?

Thanks

[VioletBumble]

It sounds like he would definitely benefit from some help. Are school doing anything to support him?

In some areas CAMHS can offer help with anxieties (eg CBT courses), but CAMHS vary a lot in how helpful they are - it can be hard to get referrals and any real help from them as they are often overstretched. Worth asking school SENCO or GP as they should have an idea of what's available in your local area and one or both should be able to do referrals.

There are some good books on anxiety - two that are always recommended on the SN boards are are Dawn Heubner 'What to do when you worry too much' and Ross Greene 'The Explosive Child'.

Sympathies, it's very hard, but you can usually find good advice here on MN. Might be worth posting on the Mumsnet SN boards - not saying that your DS necessarily has SNs but as there are a lot of posters there with extensive experience in dealing with anxious children.

[ShelaghTurner]

Lurking. My 7yo dd is the same and it's becoming increasingly obvious that we need to do something before much longer but we don't really know what.