Until January my 3.5 yo DS was cheerful and relaxed. Loved everything: being outside, stories, dancing, his nursery, playgrounds, playing with me and DP. We never experienced the terrible twos.
Since January he has become increasingly anxious, and this escalated in mid-August (when we moved to a different town), to the extent that sometimes we can't even walk down the street, as he's afraid at every step that someone is going to eat him. It seems everything is a source of worry: babies, pictures (especially those depicting just faces, as he wonders where their arms and legs are), loud noises, people with long hair, people who might tickle him, shadows (and the fact they have no mouths), dogs, animals that might eat him, people walking behind him... the list is endless. His only topic of conversation is things that worry him. It feels relentless. I've suggested we talk about things that make him happy, but he insists on talking about things that make him sad. Strangely, despite talking about bad dreams, he sleeps through the night and despite having severe multiple allergies he shows absolutely no anxiety about food and eats very well.
Recently he has begun talking about his previous cm, including that she hit him more than once, made him stay in another room while she watched grown-up television, and told him many times to 'shut up' and 'get sorted'. Chillingly, he said that she stopped being mean and started being very nice near the end of the day, when I came to pick him up. He doesn't make things up, and he has never said anything remotely negative about his old nursery, where he was between 2 and 4 days a week. My DP and I had our doubts about the cm, and gradually reduced the number of days he was there to one a week (and even fewer in the last year). However, he always seemed to enjoy going there and the worst we thought could happen was that she would have cbeebies on all day.
I'm wondering whether what happened at the cm's (if true) is the root cause of his anxiety, or whether it might be something else, or nothing at all. I feel crushed by love and guilt and so sad that this is the opposite of what I imagined life would be like with my sunny, gentle child. If only I could reach into his mind and just let him know that he'll be all right, that there is really nothing to be frightened of.
I don't expect to be told that this is normal, as I know it isn't. Just knowing that someone has read this thread to the end would help.