8 year old son - anxiety?

[Lucinda86]

I might be completely wrong here so just want to gather some thoughts really - not sure if this is a reasonable explanation to what’s going on with my son.

My 8yr old is very sensitive, he can get tearful at the smallest things. He’s very loved, he has a little sister that dotes on him and my mum and MIL are great with him.

He has a couple of health conditions, he was born with ptosis in his eye which he’s had 2 operations on as a baby and he has asthma but other than that he’s a healthy and generally happy boy.

Since lockdown he’s become very unsociable, doesn’t really want to see his friends, doesn’t really want to go to school (although his teacher said he’s great and no problems with him at all) he was being picked on last year but I’ve been assured that was sorted out and I’ve asked him about it - he says it’s stopped.

He started to develop little ticks like licking his fingers/palms or picking at his eyelashes and he seems to get very worried about the smallest things, especially at night, only wants to be with me and his dad (me and my husband are still together - no relationship problems etc)

I suffer badly with anxiety so I don’t know if it’s that because he does remind me of myself at times. AIBU thinking an 8 year old could be struggling with anxiety? Has anyone else experienced this and should I take him to the doctor? We did take him regarding the ticks but we were told he would grow out of it.

Any advice would really help I’m worried about him :(

The only help I can give is I have the same issue with DS9 who gets random tics too. Sometimes it's excessive blinking, but for a long while it was a weird grunting noise. We pointed it out to him every time he did it and tried to get him to stop. There seemed to be no reason why he was doing it tbh. It seems to have stopped now. He is quite sensitive but is happy at school, has good friends but is very shy around adults. Can't give any other help though! .

Hi, it's entirely feasible that he could be experiencing anxiety, but at 8 years old they just can't always put it into words or really understand themselves 'what' exactly they're anxious about.
Your son's school should have a Mental health support team who can be accessed by the SENCO who can assess and devise CBT based treatment for you to work through with him, they should also be able to offer parents training so you can help him (not because you need training just that at that age kids are best placed to learn from parents, so the idea is the practitioner trains you). They can also see him in school.
The anxiety gremlin book is useful as well as 'overcoming your child's fears and worries ' by (I think) Melanie fennel.
Good luck OP.

Thank you so much, both of you.

I will speak to school and have ordered the book.