Is my nearly 5 year old suffering from anxiety?

[Chris2315]

Hello 😊 my son is 5 years old this month, and growing up he has had some developmental problems including sensory issues, social communication issues and speech. Obviously based on this he was thought to be autistic, however over the last year his development has been amazing, with his speech and social skills improving drastically and they’re now unsure.

One thing that is worrying me is whether he’s suffering from severe anxiety. He is always described as a ‘worrier’ by his nursery/school teachers and will dwell on minor occurrences for hours. One of the worst things is if he hurts himself and has a visible injury, no matter how minor. While he doesn’t cry initially, he hates seeing his ‘baddy’ and will get extremely upset if we go anywhere near it, no matter how minor it is. He’s been known to have a plaster on for over a week as he doesn’t want it uncovered. If he sees someone else with a cut etc you can see in his face that he’s worried and panicking about it too

Due to his developmental issues, he’s got a one to one worker in school (he’s just started reception). She said that when he was writing numbers, he accidentally wrote one number backwards and become really distressed and was crying for her to get rid of it.

We also find he’s constantly asking questions and gets very upset if we don’t give him a straight answer. For example if he overhears us saying that the baby (we also have an 18 month old) fell over and hurt himself, he’ll need to know EXACTLY what he’s done. I.e did he fall outside or inside, on the pavement or on the grass, even done to which patch of grass (we have 3 separate bits of grass). We usually have to make it up!

Does this seem like anxiety? I don’t know what else to think really, it could be just sensory but I’m not sure. Should we speak to his GP or health visitor? Not sure what they can do but I feel awful knowing he’s feeling like he is

Thanks :)

[Embracelife]

Yes speak to gp

Ask for referral to camhsthey maybd csn do play therapy. Maybe music therapy ?
Read thd huge bag of worries with him virginia ironside

[MalorieSnooty]

He could still have ASD, but high-functioning. Anxiety is generally a huge red flag. DS1 has Asperger's and was terribly upset by mistakes he made for ages (he's 8 next month and growing out of it).

[MalorieSnooty]

(Sorry not growing out of ASD growing out of the beating himself up about mistakes!)

[Chris2315]

Thanks all, I think I'll speak to his GP

[imissthesouth]

Sounds like anxiety to me. Poor boy, hope the GP goes well x